With an audience of more than 200, the conversation started by defining what higher-ed search and discovery looks like today. Mary Somerville kicked things off by drawing from the white paper’s definition of discoverability, as representing “the degree to which scholars can locate the content needed to advance their research and other creative activity.” The panel, representing major players in the “value chain” of scholarly communication, agreed that successful discoverability is not a factor of the quantity of search results, but instead a measure of their quality. Today’s researchers, at all levels, demand simplicity, precision and visibility – to locate not only what they seek, but also what they ultimately need, to further their work.

A hot topic was new web-scale discovery services for institutional libraries – and the ways in which these tools are changing the academic research landscape. Barbara Schader, Associate University Librarian for Collections and Scholarly Communication at University of California Riverside, noted that these new emerging products are not full service, but are a fantastic starting point for students. John Law, VP Discovery Solutions for Serials Solutions / ProQuest, mentioned ongoing innovations to increase the filtering options for services, such as Summon’s new discipline-scoped searching options.

All search engines – whether designed for libraries or those on the open-web – require indexing routines. Joe Esposito stated that “this is not the age of Google, it’s the age of metadata.”  Somerville noted that 20% full-time equivalent library staff is dedicated to metadata generation, management, and maintenance of institutional discovery systems. The necessary vendor selection, usability testing, and installation processes are additional costs that will not diminish soon.

John Sack, Founding Director of HighWire Press, noted that similar investments are made today in publishing houses big and small. Often, he said, metadata production and delivery represents the “cost of herding cats,” as every service has different, and quickly changeable, requirements – which led to another argument for data standards. Law noted that NISO has launched the Open Discovery Initiative, which plans to do just that.

The panelists agreed that standards, like OpenURL, are the glue that holds library discovery in place. And, while COUNTER had led the way in usage reporting, we do yet have clear metrics of the quality of that usage. Most librarians and publishers rely on full-text download and cost / use statistics to drive business decisions, but the panel questioned whether this type of usage data adequately represents valuable research activities.

Clearly, there is a wealth of quantitative data produced within the library market, but it is not regularly shared and some panelist argued that it is lacking a qualitative layer of data. Esposito proposed that publishers should develop more robust analysis systems – as sophisticated as Bloomberg does for the stock market. Law insisted that this cannot happen unless silos between publishers and across the industry are relaxed in order to develop benchmarks for usage metrics.

Sack also noted that the 3 primary players – publishers, librarians and vendors – are not the only parties that must work together to optimize discoverability. Authors have an important and often disregarded role in ensuring scholarship is visible and findable, beyond simply adding keywords. Also, the end users themselves must be involved in the solution. Discovery for discovery’s sake is not enough — we must ASK users if what they find is of value.

In conclusion, Somerville reflected that the topics discussed by this panel and in the white paper can and should inspire rethinking of traditional relationships in the library marketplace. You can find more of this kind of cross-sector discussion continues on SSP’s “Scholarly Kitchen” blog, and on Twitter, #sagediscovery and #alamw12. We welcome replies to this post or submissions of new posts to Lettie Conrad, Online Product Manager (lettie.conrad@sagepub.com).

• February 1-4: Ontario Library Association (Toronto, Canada)
• February 4-8: Society of Critical Care Medicine (Houston, TX)
• February 4-8: Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (San Diego, CA)

Have any cool stories to share about your experiences at a convention?? Leave a comment…

1. What is your favorite part of your workday?

I like the morning when it is quiet as people begin to come in.

2. How do you see your role playing out SAGE’s vision to support and foster engaged scholarship and education?

Marketing helps communicate SAGE’s vision to end users and customers.

What’s the most exciting thing happening in publishing right now?

The open access movement is one to watch.

What is the most interesting object on your desk?

My stripey lamp.

What is your favorite thing to do outside of work?

I love to cook.

• January 26-28: Society for Personality and Social Psychology (San Diego, CA)

Have any cool stories to share about your experiences at a convention?? Leave a comment…

• January 20-23: American Library Association Midwinter (Dallas, TX)
• January 21-24: ASPEN’s Clinical Nutrition Week (Orlando, FL)

Have any cool stories to share about your experiences at a convention?? Leave a comment…

In 1947, the Bulletin first displayed the Doomsday Clock on its magazine cover to convey, through a simple design, the perils posed by nuclear weapons. The Clock evokes both the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero).

In a formal statement issued at the time of the announcement, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists noted:

“It is five minutes to midnight. Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed. For that reason, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is moving the clock hand one minute closer to midnight, back to its time in 2007.”

SAGE has freed up access to content from the latest issue of the magazine. You can also read more about the decision to move the clock hands here, and listen to audio from the live event here.

What is your favourite part of your workday?
The morning, where I have regular slots to catch up with my direct reports and get an updated sense of what’s going on in their work and subject areas.

How do you see your role playing out SAGE’s vision to support and foster engaged scholarship and education?
Within Books Editorial this is a truly key part of our role, in terms of seeking, selection, development, championing of our authors’ work, and keeping up-to-date with key trends in the academic environment and scholarship.

What’s the most exciting thing happening in publishing right now?
The debate over the future of the book.

What is the most interesting object on your desk?
A Frida Kahlo postcard sent to me by an author many years ago

What is your favourite thing to do outside of work?
Bedtime reading with my children, often nowadays with them reading to me as I snooze!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

• January 10-15: American Psychoanalytic Association (New York, NY)
• January 11-13: meCCSA (Luton, England)
• January 11-15: Society for Social Work Research (Washington, DC)
• January 12-14: Southern Political Science Association (New Orleans, LA)

Have any cool stories to share about your experiences at a convention?? Leave a comment…

Sir Roger Jowell chairing a SAGE debate in 2010

We were very sorry to hear that Sir Roger Jowell passed away over Christmas. Roger was the Founder and Director of the National Centre for Social Research, Britain’s largest social research institute until 2001, and in 2008 was knighted for his services to the social sciences.

We were very privileged to have worked with Roger as an author and friend for many years, most notably on one of his legacy works, the British Social Attitudes report series. In 1983 when it first launched, it was already a significant undertaking, surveying 1700 people in its first year. In an era where surveys were ad hoc and sporadic, work like this made it clear how important tracking opinion and trends over time would be. Writing in that first edition, Roger wrote:  “The term ‘public opinion’ is in itself misleading.  Our data demonstrate that on nearly all social issues there are actually several publics and many opinions.” Published by SAGE since 2000 it is now in its 28^th volume and continues to be just as challenging, and as important.

Roger was also co-founder and Director of the European Social Survey (ESS), a 34-nation comparative study of changing social values throughout Europe. We published the initial book of methods and findings: Measuring Attitudes Cross-Nationally: Lessons from the European Social Survey in 2007.

A key figure for the social sciences he was also, simply, an extremely nice man and a pleasure to work with. He will be greatly missed.