PLI met with ten legal librarians on May 20^th to discuss PLI Discover, which is our ebook library.  We also discussed Discover Plus, which is our research portal currently in development.  The research portal is being created at the suggestion of librarians, and therefore we want to involve them every step of the way. 

To provide a brief overview, PLI has been offering electronic access to publications for about three years on a very basic platform.  In 2011, we updated the platform and created PLI Discover.  Discover is a great improvement over the first iteration and provides many enhancements including: advanced search, guided search navigation, keyword-in-context display on the search results page, as well as improved relevancy ranking.

Throughout the creation of Discover, we were asked by librarians to add additional features, things to make this into a true research portal.  The Discover platform is tied to PLI’s program content and that posed some constraints.  To get around this, we realized we needed to create a true research database and create a platform tailored to the publication content.  That research portal is being created and will be called Discover Plus.  We expect to have it ready later this year.   

The librarians who attended the lunch provided valuable and candid feedback.  We put together a list of their specific requests and plan to report back to them on each item.  The list of action items is below:

Showing the “add to cart” option Discover

• The text “add to cart” can be misleading.  Perhaps the text could be changed to “purchase this book” or something that indicates that the cart is for buying the hard copy of the book.
  • PLI will take this to the developers.

 Archive of Course Handbooks

• We have received requests to provide more than a three year archive, which is what we currently offer on Discover.  A minimum of five years is preferred, but more is better.  In fact, even to provide the metadata of older content would be useful.
  • PLI will consider these options and be sure to increase the archive on Discover Plus.

 “Back” to edit a search

• If a search is misspelled, can clicking “back” on the internet browser take you back to the search page with the search string in the search box so fixing the spelling error is easier? 
  • PLI has implemented this.

 IPhone App

• We created a free IPhone application for our customers.  Anyone who subscribes to Discover can access the publication content through their device (as well as MP3 program content).  We were asked to confirm the file type of book chapters in the iPhone application and if chapters could be printed from the device.
  • The files are delivered via the application as PDFs rendered as images, which means that text cannot be copied.  AirPrint was released after our app and we are not currently supporting it. 
  • We were asked if we would create a similar app for other mobile devices.
    • Yes, PLI would like to create an app for other devices.  We are taking suggestions to our developers.

 Folders

• Having a folder feature is important.  Also, librarians would like to have the ability to add notes and highlighting to items in folder.
  • PLI will add a folder feature to Discover Plus.  We will determine if we can support notes and highlighting in the first phase or if this will be something that is added in a future iteration.

 MARC Records

• These are very important to have for all titles.  They provide easy access.
  • PLI is hoping to provide MARC records to Discover Plus.  We are looking at the best way to do this.

KM

• Currently PLI offers organizations the option to obtain a direct feed of PLI publication content to integrate with their firm’s knowledge management or document management system.  In addition to this, it was suggested that PLI consider creating a SharePoint widget.  Many of the represented firms were using SharePoint.
  • PLI will look into creating this and report back.

Price

• We were asked to continue providing a flat annual rate. 
  • PLI is happy to accommodate this request.
  • We were asked to provide an additional discount on print titles if a library is subscribing to Discover Plus. 
    • PLI feels that this request can be met.  We are looking into what discount structure we would use, and what the discount would be.

 Usage Stats

• We were asked to provide robust usage statistics (add time on site per user, add the cost of the print material, indicate the individual if possible—even if the site is IP authenticated).
  • PLI will take all the suggestions to the development team and follow-up.