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Introduction
During the last decade, increased complexity in the information landscape has brought changes to the way in which libraries operate. New electronic formats have proliferated and now exist alongside the library's traditional collections. In addition much quality information is now found outside library collections on the internet.
Recently, web scale discovery products are being hailed as the panacea that will provide Google-type searching of library collections. However, there is, as yet, a dearth of end-user studies to confirm this promise.
It is well documented by [8] Head and Eisenberg (2009) and others ([13] Lippincott, 2005; [17] OCLC, 2005) that many students find the research process difficult and often choose Google or Google Scholar as their first research port of call. [8] Head and Eisenberg's, 2009 report, which was part of the Project Information Literacy longitudinal study found that:
[...] students reported being challenged, confused and frustrated by the research process ... having particular difficulty traversing a vast and ever-changing information landscape ([8] Head and Eisenberg, 2009, p. 13).
This finding corresponds with the experiences of many librarians who in deal with students in information literacy classes and in reference enquiry contact time in the academic library setting. It is not difficult to see why the simplicity of "googling" has instant appeal.
[4] Burke (2010) points to signs that libraries are in danger of being cut out of their role as intermediaries in the information supply chain. The Ithaka survey of faculty also cautions that the "academic library is increasingly being disintermediated [left out] from the discovery process, risking irrelevance in one of its core areas"...that is the core area of research ([18] Schonfeld and Housewright, 2010). Furthermore, whereas students place high value on the library "brand" ([17] OCLC, 2005, part 3), they are increasingly overwhelmed by the complex navigation of library web sites that present multiple pathways to searching across many different formats.
[11] Lauridsen and Stone (2009, p. 41) have recognised that the shift from print to online library collections has made it imperative that libraries find ways to organise and manage this "virtual cornucopia of e-books, journal articles, text and images" Library systems developers have grappled with the resource discovery dilemma for almost a decade and have arrived at various system solutions:...