The Discovery Working Group was charged by the University Librarian in early July 2016 to improve identification and access to materials in our collections. Key to the group’s charge is the guiding principle, “Create a comprehensive digital environment that is based on user need, optimizing navigation to ensure successful search, identification, and retrieval.”
Fortunately, the Working Group has access to a powerful key indicator of user need in the form of the LibQUAL+survey results. Among the tasks the group has taken on, they have read thousands of comments left on the survey that relate to discovery (search, website, library catalog, interlibrary loan, and resources). The Working Group has also devoted time to understanding the current architecture of our systems in order to best incorporate the influx of new resources (predominantly e-books) which have been recently acquired.
Chaired by Joseph Deodato, the group is comprised of members from all of the universities and Technical and Automated Services. Judy Cohn is the cabinet liaison to the group. The Working Group looks forward to sending an interim report to cabinet at the end of October. The charge and complete list of members is available at the Working Group’s website in Staff Resources – University Librarian – Committees and Task Forces. http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/staff/admin/committees.shtml.
