next-generation discovery

Reading this foundational article on the Endeca deployment at NCSU: http://washingtonstate.worldcat.org/oclc/103589739&referer=brief_results. Having led the WorldCat Local implementation here since early 2009, the authors' take on why NCSU made the leap to modernize its discovery service several years ago is instructive:

Several organizational and cultural factors contributed to making this project possible. Of significance was an ongoing administrative commitment to fund digital library innovation, including projects that involve some risk. Library staff share this feeling that calculated risks are opportunities to improve the library as well as to open up new challenges in their own jobs. Critically, they also believe that not all issues, particularly “edge cases,” (i.e., rarely occurring scenarios) must be resolved before releasing a new service.