Central Discovery Index : Primo Library Discovery Service

Primo is a library discovery service that ensures the discovery of commercial and Open Access content is available through the Ex Libris Central Discovery Index (CDI). Primo also provides information and metadata from additional sources as well as, such as your library’s local resources. The coverage is vast and reflects available resources from journal articles, ebooks, videos, reviews, legal documents and more.

The coverage is vast and reflects available resources from journal articles, ebooks, videos, reviews, legal documents and more. The content is carefully aggregated from an extensive network of providers and is also enriched by the Ex Libris team of metadata librarians in order to facilitate fast and easy discovery. This process also has the ability to include information supplemented by items specific to your library or with local library resources.

Transforming Discovery: Data Intelligence and the Central Discovery Index

Demonstration of the Resource types listed with the Primo central discovery index

Deep and broad coverage

Ex Libris tracks and works with the broadest types of resources, thanks to our close relationships with both local and global content providers. This comprehensive approach provides users with the ability to successfully discover hard-to-find content across all sources.

Example of the Primo central discover index Content Stewardship software

Stewardship of metadata

The level of discoverability available from Primo is achieved because of the hard work done by a dedicated team of professional Ex Libris librarians who use their deep expertise in metadata management to continuously aggregate, enrich, and update resources for the Primo Central Discovery Index. Our team of expert metadata librarians use the content handling processes to bring together and maintain metadata records from all content types. These experts are able to combine all the metadata and information from all available sources to be easily discovered in one convenient location. This process helps to improve the discoverability and accessibility of online collections by treating all sources equally and ensuring they are available when needed for discoverability.

Primo central discovery index - Authoritative Metadata

Authoritative and rich metadata

The large amount of scholarly resources searched through Primo contain extensive metadata, this metadata helps to improve the delivery of relevant results throughout the entire library collection. Detailed records include subject terms, controlled vocabularies, author-provided keywords, metadata from A&I sources, CrossRef DOIs, Ulrich’s peer-reviewed indicators, and more. This level of detail is achieved by a refined set of Ex Libris librarians and advanced technologies that create an efficient flow of data based on close collaboration with content providers.

Content overview of the Primo central discovery index

Community engagement

Customers play a critical role in the continuous improvement of Ex Libris’ library software, especially with suggesting additions to the Central Discovery Index. One of the most prominent examples is that of the Ex Libris Idea Exchange Content forum, which provides opportunities to submit, review, and vote on ideas to help us grow our collections . These forums and feedback are imperative and are collected to meet both the needs of the library and its customer base.