Early results of discovery research highlight need to simplify access
Jinfo Blog

By Elizabeth Trudell

Abstract

Jinfo's new survey on goals and priorities for discovery is ongoing. You can still take part: complete the survey and receive a copy of the results as a thank you.

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A few weeks ago, we embarked on a research project to dig more deeply into the top goals for discovery as identified in our 2017 research, starting off with a brief survey. The survey is still underway, but we are beginning to see some early trends.

One of our primary goals this year is to validate the importance of three potential objectives that fall under the broad banner of "discovery":

1. Create a single point of entry to diverse content collections
2. Back-end integration of multiple databases
3. Generate fresh insights through the use of data analytics.

Survey respondents are asked to rate each of these objectives on a scale from "not important" to "essential".

Preliminary results indicate that offering users a single point of entry for diverse content collections is a priority of 54% of respondents. Further, the majority of respondents report they have one or more services or technologies in place to provide this capability.

In comparison, ratings from 38% of respondents put back-end integration of multiple databases as a priority, whilst 35% rated generating fresh insights through the use of data analytics a priority, a very similar ranking.

Figure 1: Percentage of respondents rating objective as a priority

However, the early results show that more respondents plan to significantly increase staff time for providing data analytics than for providing back-end integration, which may indicate a trend toward analytics.

The preliminary results also offer a snapshot of the current and emerging service providers being deployed or assessed to address these goals.

Participate

We invite you to take part in the survey and share your perspectives to round out these findings. If you provide a valid email address at the end of the survey, you'll receive a copy of the report, as well as information about webinars and other presentations on the findings.

Please take 10 minutes to complete the survey now. I look forward to bringing you the results and analysis.

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