Discovery systems

In UK Higher Education the online catalogue (OPAC) of the library system has been largely replaced by discovery services. These link to the print collection and index electronic resources (typically journal articles). As well as the library catalogue a discovery service may ‘harvest’ (usually by the OAI-PMH) metadata from other repositories. Discovery services solutions are made up of:

  • A central index of electronic resources (subscription and open access)
  • A knowledge base which defines what resources (including the components of a ‘package’ or resources) are subscribed to by the library
  • A link (usually OpenURL) resolver to enable the authenticated an authorised library user to access subscribed resources without hitting a paywall

    AI is beginning to be employed to enhance discovery capabilities. See the HELibTech AI page

    Over the past fifteen years, most academic librarians have implemented one-stop search tools, commonly referred to as discovery layers, to accommodate contemporary user expectations. In more recent years these tools have come under criticism due to their limitations and shortcomings. We set out to evaluate if a discovery layer, when prompted with typical user keyword search strings, produced the most relevant search results when compared with two other widely accessible academic search tools. We compared search results from a discovery layer with a central index (WorldCat Discovery) with search results from a subscription interdisciplinary index and abstract database (Academic Search Complete) and a freely accessible academic web search engine (Google Scholar).” Szpunar, R., Bradley, E., Gabrielson, E., & Pellegrino, C. (2025). Irrelevant Discovery Layers? An Evidence-Based Evaluation of Three Common Library Search Tools. Information Technology and Libraries44(2). June 2025. https://doi.org/10.5860/ital.v44i2.17266

Who uses what discovery system

Details of which HEIs use which discovery systems is included in the Who Uses What section of the site under Who Uses What Library Technology

The main discovery services in UK HE

Whilst there are multiple discovery products available and these are listed in full on our product directory, the UK HE landscape is dominated by four core products from 3 suppliers:

  • EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS)
  • Summon by ProQuest (a Clarivate Company)
  • Primo by Ex Libris (a Clarivate Company)
  • WorldCat Discovery by OCLC

Primo and WorldCat discovery are tightly integrated with their respective library management systems (Alma and WMS). EDS and Summon work across multiple library systems.

Section updated June 2025


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