Evaluating the Impact of Web-scale Discovery Services on Scholarly Content Seeking

Web-scale discovery service is one of the primary trends in academic libraries. In this research, using referral data, we explore the main referring domains of DOIs, and evaluate the impact of web-scale discovery services on scholarly content seeking. The results show that web-scale discovery services play an important role in directing users to scholarly contents. ProQuest is found to be ranked the first among all the major referring domains. In addition, the time series analysis shows a significant growing trend of ProQuest as a referring service from 2011 to 2016. The monthly trends demonstrate seasonal fluctuations and daily periodicity of referral data. Specifically, there are two low ebbs throughout a year, corresponding to the Summer and Winter vacations. The lowest point in a week is found to be on Saturdays, while the peak normally occurs on Mondays or Tuesdays.