Is known item searching really a big issue in Web Scale discovery?

In my last post, I mused about blue ocean strategies and how libraries should consider spending time focusing more on blue ocean strategies.

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Library web scale discovery systems are great. They break down the silos between books , articles and other content types. They provide the "one-search" box experience that our users claim to want. But problems exist (See my overview - 8 things we know about web scale discovery systems in 2013  and outstanding issues ). In my experience, one of the most sticky issues is the question of getting relevant results.

I like to question why. I don't believe the status quo or the way things are is always the best that is possible. I ask why. I agitate for change. I try new things.  But after over almost 7 years of working on various projects and initiating various changes,  "the way things are" have started to slowly shift to what I had a hand in deciding or at least help guide thinking in - in some areas at least.

As part of a new goal to start reading sources outside the library world for ideas, I have been reading Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant and I must say it is surprisingly insightful.

I blogged 8 things we know about web scale discovery systems in 2013 , an attempt to summarize the current consensus after 4 years of web scale discovery service use in libraries and hundreds of research papers and presentation.

After several posts in a row about discovery services, let's have a change of pace and let me share with you some interesting ideas in the world of librarianship that I am playing with lately.

A tongue in a cheek, thought experiment or perhaps precautionary tale of the ultimate fate of library discovery services in 2035.

I blogged 8 things we know about web scale discovery systems in 2013 , and am working on a draft of "4 issues about web scale discovery systems we are still pondering about", but I was already pretty sure that beyond a certain point, the size of the index while important is no-longer the be-all and end all for evaluating the search.

I recently had the privilege to attend & present a paper at the satellite Meeting of IFLA World Library and Information Congress Information Literacy Section and Reference &