Athena Hoeppner
Electronic Resources Librarian
University of Central Florida
Ashley Brewer
Information Delivery Services Librarian
Old Dominion University
James G. Rhoades, Jr.
Social Sciences Research Librarian
Old Dominion University
Dave Edwards
Director, Discovery Service Engineering
EBSCO Information Services
Web-scale discovery services, which provide single search box discovery of library resources, are revolutionizing the online research process but questions arise: How well do discovery services support topical research needs? To what extent do discovery services support specialized discipline research? How do discovery services decide which resources are most relevant to the user’s search query? This panel will look at recent advances in subject-based discovery, and how they support topical research needs. The concept of subject-based discovery has existed in libraries since their inception, however the nature of subject-based discovery is changing rapidly as information resources continue to grow, and library search technologies progressively advance. The panel will also discuss the delivery of topical research and examine the role of Web-scale discovery services in advancing and supporting topical research for a variety of library user communities.