Discovery Solutions for Public and Corporate Libraries

For over a decade discovery systems are replacing traditional library catalogs due to a higher user and service orientation, especially at academic libraries. This presentation responds to the astonishing fact, that regardless of similar developments, discovery systems still aren’t commonly used at public and corporate libraries. Therefor the presentation provides a comparison of requirements and offerings for those two library types. Among increasing public and corporate librarian’s awareness of discovery solutions in general, the findings shall facilitate library decision makers to create and develop customized specification sheets for the implementation of such systems. In addition the paper offers suggestions for providers of discovery systems how to further improve their offerings for this still insufficiently covered market segment.