Abstract
Since the inception of indexed-based web-scale discovery services for libraries, JSTOR has been providing metadata to Primo (Ex Libris), EDS (EBSCO), Summon (Serials Solutions), and WorldCat Local (OCLC). By participating in these services, JSTOR’s aim was to help libraries leverage their significant investments in their discovery service of choice and to help students, faculty, and researchers find the content available on the JSTOR platform at their chosen starting point.
While there have been a number of studies on these discovery services, there is little written about the impact on content usage from the perspective of the content provider. JSTOR has undertaken a comprehensive analysis of the use of their content in the discovery services to better comprehend “how” usage (as measured by COUNTER) is being impacted at institutions that have implemented these services, investigate “why” these usage changes might be occurring, and to gain an understanding of “what” content providers, libraries, and the discovery software providers can do to make this a more virtuous circle.
Plato’s Cave Revisited
Since the inception of indexed-based web-scale discovery services for libraries, JSTOR has been providing metadata to Primo (Ex Libris), EDS (EBSCO), Summon (Serials Solutions), and WorldCat Local (OCLC). By participating in these services, JSTOR’s aim was to help libraries leverage their significant investments in their discovery service of choice and to help students, faculty, and researchers find the content available on the JSTOR platform at their chosen starting point.
While there have been a number of studies on these discovery services, there is little written about the impact on content usage from the perspective of the content provider. JSTOR has undertaken a comprehensive analysis of the use of their content in the discovery services to better comprehend “how” usage (as measured by COUNTER) is being impacted at institutions that have implemented these services, investigate “why” these usage changes might be occurring, and to gain an understanding of “what” content providers, libraries, and the discovery software providers can do to make this a more virtuous circle.