Resource Discovery for the Twenty-First Century Library

Athenaeum21 is pleased to announce a new publication showcasing our work with Oxford to design the future of finding for their museum and library collections.

Good resource discovery tools are not simply about making research easier and faster, but about facilitating the creation, preservation and discovery of knowledge by enabling new modes of research, especially across disciplines.

Facet Publishing will soon be releasing “Resource Discovery for the Twenty-First Century Library” a selection of case studies and perspectives on the role of IT in user engagement and empowerment. We are very pleased to have contributed a chapter based on our resource discovery work with Oxford University. Our chapter “Investigating resource discovery needs at the University of Oxford,” discusses in depth the methods used to understand how people inside and outside the University find (and sometimes struggle to find) its vast cultural resources. With over 100 libraries, five museums, botanic gardens and an arboretum at the University, Oxford has been working to find world-leading solutions for connecting students and researchers at Oxford (and abroad) with the collections that are available to them. The University also aimed to make its resources more findable by the wider community, to increase engagement with its world-class collections and research.

The aim of the Oxford Resource Discovery Project was to understand the current state of resource discovery, users’ behaviours and needs in the resource finding process, and to scope new approaches to finding information and collections of relevance to research and teaching at Oxford. It explored new tools and approaches to enable students and researchers at Oxford and abroad to understand the scope of collections held by the University and to find them quickly and efficiently.  Based on an in-depth understanding of user needs, this chapter also highlights the recommendations we made that set the priorities and strategies for the future of finding at Oxford.