Unified Discovery Name

Background

In May of 2016 the idea of creating name for the Primo Discovery Service that would be standard across all 23 campuses first surfaced on the discovery listserv. The initial email generated a great deal of interest with members from across the system indicating that this was an idea worth exploring. It was then suggested that this idea should be explored further and then brought to COLD.

Policy Statement

This proposal requests that COLD consider the adoption of a unified discovery system name. This proposal is based on a survey taken of all 23 campuses.

Best Practice recommendation

Action Taken

The Discovery Working group was commissioned to create a survey to determine the interest in adopting a unified name across the system. The group petitioned those on the discovery listserv for potential name suggestions to include in the survey. The decision was made to include the options, OneSearch, Library Search, AllSearch, and Primo. The survey also provided a way for respondents to suggest names of their own.

The survey was distributed on the listserv and responses were gathered in July 2016.

Findings

The results of the survey showed that of the 21 campuses that responded, 14 responded positively to the adoption of a unified name, while two campuses indicated they were against the idea. The other five campuses were neutral on the topic.

Of the naming options listed, OneSearch was the overwhelming favorite, with 71% indicating that it would be their first choice of the four options presented. Primo proved to be the least popular of the options presented.

Lastly, we asked how many libraries in the system would be likely to adopt a unified name. Of the 21 that responded to this question, 16 said they were extremely or somewhat likely to adopt the unified name. There were three that indicated they were neither likely nor unlikely, and two that were somewhat or extremely unlikely. Not surprisingly, these sentiments closely reflected the answers to the first question.

Policy Suggestion

The CSU system should adopt the name OneSearch as a unified name for the Discovery Service. This name will be applied across all of the 23 campuses.  

Action log