Hi
Apologies for the rather long email but I’m looking for advice/thoughts from Primo customers primarily although my questions relate to the whole debate on decreasing usage stats that was recently aired and to publishers views on opening up their data.

We are currently a Metalib and Voyager customer but have just launched our beta version of Primo which will become our main resource discovery system by the start of the new academic year.

Initial user feedback is very positive – they like the fact that they only have to go to one interface. But, as part of the integration process we (the subject librarians) have been trying to grapple with what our users are actually searching in Primo central. We are extremely disappointed to discover that since Ebsco launched its own discovery system, much of the data from the Ebsco databases is not included in the Primo central search. We currently subscribe to several Ebsco databases including Business Source Complete and regard them as key resources for many of our subjects.

Obviously, in our info lit training sessions we always remind students that it’s not good practice to rely on one data source and to search more than just Google. And we point out the advantages of accessing various databases directly. But in practice, we know students will go for the easiest quickest option. We’re hoping that Primo, with the clean interface and automatic full text limit will wean most of them off the Google habit and get them accessing the material we’ve paid for. But if great chunks of our subscribed data is not being indexed on Primo central it rather defeats the purpose.

My feeling is that ultimately, the use of our Ebsco databases will drop dramatically and we will find it very difficult to justify renewing them. I find it so frustrating that, as librarians, we’re constantly trying to find better more efficient ways of students and staff discovering our paid for content (to justify continued purchase of) and yet we constantly come up against barriers to this. Surely the most effective way of a publisher promoting content is to make the metadata open in as many places as possible. So my questions are:


1. Is my information correct that much of the data indexed in the Ebsco databases isn’t included in the Primo central index?

2. If so, how are other libraries promoting the Primo central search and the use of other data sources?

3. Am I being unduly pessimistic in thinking that usage of those journals not indexed in Primo central will decline dramatically and thus make it difficult to justify renewing subscriptions?


I look forward to your views.

Jayne Moss
Senior Subject Librarian (Engineering and Construction/Computing and Mathematics)
Charles Seale-Hayne Library
Plymouth University
Drakes Circus
Plymouth
PL4 8AA

Tel: 01752 587116

lis-e-resources is a UKSG list - http://www.uksg.org/serials
UKSG groups also available on Facebook and LinkedIn