TexShare Discovery Working Group – Conference Call

April 4, 2013

Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC)

1201 Brazos, Austin, Texas 78701

Minutes

Attending: Eddy Smith (Chair), Jeannie Colson, Judith Hiott, Tracy Holtman, Larry Koeninger, Christine Peterson, Betty Thompson, Beverley Shirley, Jay Velgos (Guest)

Discovery Texas Interface – status of recommended changes (Judith)

·  Make “full text” part of the default search – Will be done by next week.

·  Discontinue “Guest” login; what had been guest access is really a “catalog only” search option – Group determined that rather than discontinue the guest login, this feature could be changed to “for free resources and library catalogs” and/or could be made into an e-book search (if WorldCat is taken out)

·  Remove Internet Archives and HATHI Trust from the default search – these have been removed

·  Investigate inconsistencies in results generated by a simple search. (Why are there different results for the same search?) – Judith needs examples in order to tackle this. Group members were asked to each do 5 searches and send results to Judith.

Discovery Texas usage statistics – progress toward a tracking tool (Jay) – Jay will work with Judith to determine whether Google Analytics tools might be useful. Judith doesn’t believe they will get us what we need.

Status of Discovery Texas e-book search (Judith) – There are two targets for e-books up for renewal, Internet Archives and Hathi Trust. The EBSCO target has not been working. If the EBSCO target will work, EBSCO e-books could be used in the tool for TexShare libraries

From April to June (Eddy facilitates)

Discovery Texas Outreach – to do or not to do? – Postpone outreach

What is needed to come to a recommendation regarding continuation of the tool? – The group discussed the following needs:

1)  Meaningful usage statistics – if we cannot get usage data, we cannot measure effectiveness

2)  A list of what features or changes are needed to the system and which of these are affordable to correct.

3)  Success in keeping the attention of Index Data

4)  Determine if anyone is using the tool – even anecdotally. Chris Peterson will post the question to the Small Library Management discussion list.

Next Steps:

The group needs to have a separate meeting with a single agenda topic on the future of the Discovery Texas tool

Determine if Discovery Texas provides a service not available anywhere else.

Determine if there is another way to authenticate the databases outside of the Discovery Texas tool.

Other Discovery Services (Eddy facilitates) – Discussion Postponed

Status of EBSCO discount program

Pursuing additional discounts

Communicating availability of discounts