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Presentation
The Library with a Thousand Databases
NISO’s Virtual Conference on Web Scale Discovery (2013)
  • Matthew Reidsma, Grand Valley State University
Abstract
In his book, *The Hero with a Thousand Faces*, Joseph Campbell laid out a narrative pattern he saw across myths, stories, and religious rituals that he called The Hero's Journey. The hero moved out of the ordinary world into the "Special realm," where she encountered all manner of obstacles before coming back to the ordinary world transformed.

As librarians, it's easy for us to forget that many patrons leave the ordinary world for the "special realm" of library research databases when they use our services. For decades, these tools have been disconnected, proprietary tools that require a truly epic amount of effort from our hero/patrons if they are to find their treasure (usually articles, books, or citations). But it doesn't have to be this way. We can make the journey easier for our patrons with the right tools and an eye toward improving the search experience.
Publication Date
November 18, 2013
Citation Information
Matthew Reidsma. "The Library with a Thousand Databases" NISO’s Virtual Conference on Web Scale Discovery (2013)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/mreidsma/22/
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY International License.