Embracing E-Resource Discovery Technique Using Open Source Software: The IUB Library's Experience

Abstract

The purpose of this write-up is to share the extent of the practice of discovery tools to explore e-resources at the Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) Library, by its faculty members, research scholars and students. This study is also aimed at investigating and sharing the technical procedure of implementing the discovery tool using open source software, i.e. VuFind. A number of popular open source discovery tools have been examined. A comparison has been made to adopt the most suitable one. This study pointed out that a discovery tool has been instituted first time in Bangladesh from the library professionals and university library perspective. The write-up also provided a total scenario and working process of the VuFind discovery tool which has almost all the advanced technologies of the next generation catalog. The study also found that VuFind may be a good tool for moderately technologically competent library professionals for managing their resources with minimum cost and efforts, having customizable code and unlimited instances.