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This review allows librarians to compare three of the major discovery services – EBSCO Discovery Service, Ex Libris’ Primo and Serials Solutions’ Summon – on the basis of price, content, user experience, features and functionality and back-end configuration to make informed decisions about the best tool for their institutions.

The comparisons were made through a literature review, study of the vendors’ websites, several interviews and personal usability testing of each tool.

The tools each have their strengths and weaknesses, and a decision of which tool is most appropriate for an institution varies depending on the institution’s needs and current situation.

A literature review shows that no study has yet been conducted comparing these three discovery tools, and few comparative studies of discovery tools have been published recently.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and compare open source and proprietary discovery tools and find out how much discovery tools have achieved towards becoming the next generation catalog.

The paper summarizes characteristics of the next generation catalog into a check‐list of 12 features. This list was checked against each of seven open source and ten proprietary discovery tools to determine if those features were present or absent in those tools.

Discovery tools have many next generation catalog features, but only a few can be called real next generation catalogs. Federated searching and relevancy based on circulation statistics are the two areas that both open source and proprietary discovery tools are missing. Open source discovery tools seem to be bolder and more innovative than proprietary tools in embracing advanced features of the next generation catalog. Vendors of discovery tools may need to quicken their steps in catching up.

It is the first evaluation and comparison of open source and proprietary discovery tools on a large scale. It will provide information as to exactly where discovery tools stand in light of the much desired next generation catalog.

This paper aims to determine the current usage of next generation online public access catalogs (OPACs) and discovery tools in academic libraries in the USA and Canada.

Using the same random sample of 260 colleges and universities in the USA and Canada from their original study, the authors revisited each institution's library web page to ascertain whether the OPAC interface(s) offered were the same or different than in their initial data collection. Data was collected and analyzed in October and November 2011.

Discovery tool use has practically doubled in the last two years, from 16 percent to 29 percent. A total of 96 percent of academic libraries using discovery tools still provide access to their legacy catalog. The percentage of institutions using ILS OPACs with faceted navigation has increased from 2 percent to 4 percent. Combining the use of discovery tools and faceted OPACs, at least 33 percent of academic libraries are now using a faceted interface. Discovery tools that aim to be the “single point of entry for all library resources” are the most recently popular.

About 16 percent of the institutions (n=43) in the sample either did not have web sites or did not provide access to their online catalogs. Thus, some data might be underreported.

The findings identify trends that may inform academic libraries in the quest to providing next generation interfaces to their varied resources.

This study gives a timely update of next generation catalog (NGC) and discovery tool usage in academic libraries in the USA and Canada.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the utilization of discovery tools in classrooms with the aim of trying to assess the attitude toward them.

The methodology adopted in this article is a literature review.

Despite the author's best efforts to look at the data from all angles, the author found no statistical significance in any of the data pulled from the survey. The author also tested to see if personal preference had any bearing on reference preference and found that there was no statistical significance between personal preference and reference preference. The author removed all responses that said “it depends” and the results showed that there still was no statistical significance between personal preference and reference preference.

Libraries can rebrand their services by utilizing and advocating for discovery tools, but it will only happen if they are willing to make changes on their attitudes toward discovery tools.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the paradigm shift of library automation to resource discovery by exploring the applications of resource discovery. The present status of India on adapting resource discovery applications is discussed.

An evaluative method to examine the status quo of India automation and resource discovery scenario is drawn with a related literature review. Moreover, various pertinent global challenges of embracing discovery tools in the digital environment are highlighted.

The growth of the Indian library automation industry is booming. However, library software adaptation, next‐generation catalogue enhancements and community development avenues are dearth, seemingly remote and far from satisfactory.

The paper focuses on the emerging scenario of resource discovery applications with an overview of global challenges.

This paper discusses how University of Maryland University College (UMUC) librarians customized EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) to allow for searching across librarian-selected sets of discipline-specific databases. Discipline-specific searching results in a smaller and more relevant set of search results, which can make research more efficient and effective.

This paper describes the collaboration between systems and reference and instruction librarians to develop, test, launch, promote, and assess discipline-specific searching in EDS in support of effective teaching and learning.

Customization of a discovery tool to allow researchers to run searches across pre-selected sets of discipline-specific databases is beneficial to the researchers since it enables them to find a smaller and more relevant set of search results than they would otherwise receive if they searched across all databases available in the discovery tool.

This paper provides detailed instructions regarding customization of EDS to allow for discipline-specific searching and discusses ways in which this enhancement can be brought to researchers' attention during reference and instruction interactions. This paper should be of interest to technical librarians as well as to reference and instruction librarians.

This article aims to examine how next‐generation library catalogs and discovery platforms have the potential to transform the challenges inherent in finding music materials in library collections.

The article discusses the characteristics of discovery platforms, the challenges of searching for music materials, and how discovery tools help users meet those challenges in new ways.

Discovery tools are particularly well suited to searching for music materials. They empower the user by providing effective tools such as facets and tags to manipulate the large, varied search results users encounter when searching for music materials.

The article views the features of discovery tools through the eyes of the end user searching for music materials.

This paper aims to present academic librarians with a framework for teaching and assessing information literacy in response to advancements in online discovery. Advancements in online discovery require academic librarians to develop new means of teaching and assessing information literacy, with an emphasis on having students use critical thinking to evaluate sources.

This conceptual paper analyzes how the threshold concept “format as a process” could be incorporated into information literacy instruction sessions which address Web-scale discovery services and other online search tools. General guidelines for applying this concept are included, along with potential classroom activities and assessments.

Format as a process provides a valuable framework for evaluating information, though librarians need to be mindful of how they present the concept to students. Instruction must be focused on fostering critical thinking skills, rather than how to perform tasks, and assessment must be qualitative in nature.

These changes in online searching mean that information literacy programs will need to alter their approach to instruction and move beyond the “one shot” paradigm. Critical evaluation is a sustainable, lifelong skill which will continue to serve students after graduation, but developing that ability requires academic librarians to fulfill new roles in the classroom and on campus.

The literature surrounding instruction of Web-scale discovery is still limited, and does not incorporate the threshold concepts provided in Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education. This paper concentrates on one such concept, as well as discusses how future concepts could be addressed.

The purpose of this paper is to form one of a series which will give an overview of so‐called “transformational” areas of digital library technology. The aim will be to assess how much real transformation these applications are bringing about, in terms of creating genuine user benefit and also changing everyday library practice.

An overview of the present state of development of the one‐stop shop library search engine, with particular reference to its relationship with the underlying bibliographic databases to which it provides a simplified single interface.

The paper finds that the success of federated searching has proved valuable but limited to date in creating a one‐stop shop search engine to rival Google Scholar; but the persistent value of the bibliographic databases sitting underneath a federated search system means that a harvesting search engine could well answer the need for a true one‐stop search engine for academic and scholarly information.

This paper is based on the hypothesis that Google's success in providing such an apparently high degree of access to electronic journal services is not what it seems, and that it does not render library discovery tools obsolete. It argues that Google has not diminished the pre‐eminent role of library bibliographic databases in mediating access to e‐journal text, although this hypothesis needs further research to validate or disprove it.

The paper affirms the value of bibliographic databases to practitioner librarians and the potential of single interface discovery tools in library practice.

The paper uses statistics from US LIS sources to shed light on UK discovery tool issues.

The aim of this paper was to compare university students’ preferences for searching the library catalogue via the library’s Koha online public access catalogue (OPAC) or its discovery tool VuFind.

A total of 175 students responded to a questionnaire-based survey through which their demographic data, duration (years) of computer use and their self-reported levels of computer skills were obtained. Students were asked what interfaces they use for catalogue searching and to rate their opinion on the relevant interfaces on a seven-point Likert scale. Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis tests were conducted to statistically compare the differences between students’ demographic/individual characteristics and their ratings on the respective interfaces. For those students who used both systems, differences between their Likert ratings were assessed using a one-tailed Wilcoxon signed rank test.

The results showed that there were no significant differences among students in terms of their ratings on either the OPAC or VuFind interfaces. Wilcoxon signed ranks test indicated that significantly more students thought that VuFind was more usable than the Koha OPAC.

This is a pioneering study of the current use of the OPAC and discovery tools by university students and their preferences for searching catalogue information through these systems. It is hoped that the findings of this study will encourage researchers to conduct task-based usability studies with various cataloguing tools and this could yield new and improved interaction designs for library catalogue searching.