MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

1640.2024.v18.e024009

DOCUMENTARY LANGUAGES APPLIED TO

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL IN LIBRARIES:

a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System

Linguagens documentárias aplicadas à recuperação de informação em bibliotecas: uma revisão do

EBSCO Discovery Service

Giovana Deliberali Maimone (1), Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques Viana (2)

(1) University of São Paulo, Brazil, gdmaimone@usp.br

(2) m.viana@usp.br

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of documentary languages applied to the information discovery service

called EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), created and maintained by EBSCO (United States of America).

The focus of the present paper is exclusively to evaluate EDS discovery system and how it adopts

documentary languages. The goal of a discovery system is to provide a unified retrieval of descriptive

bibliographic records from different sources of physical collections - print documents and physical media

- and electronic collections - digital documents in the online format. Briefly, through a bibliographic survey

in Information Science, it addresses the evolution of information search and retrieval methods: public access

catalogs, metasearch systems and discovery services. It compares them and illustrates the advantages of

incorporating subject indexing, controlled vocabularies, knowledge graphs, and concept maps in

information retrieval tools. We conclude that using documentary languages in the EBSCO discovery service

provides a greater capacity for information retrieval for end users, as well as new possibilities for obtaining

documents and information in different knowledge domains.

Keywords: Information retrieval; Access to information; Indexing; Discovery services; Search engines.

Resumo

Este trabalho fornece uma visão geral da aplicação de linguagens documentárias no serviço de descoberta

de informação EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), criado e mantido pela empresa EBSCO (Estados Unidos).

O foco desse estudo é exclusivamente avaliar o sistema de descoberta EDS e como ele adota linguagens

documentárias. O objetivo de um sistema de descoberta é proporcionar a recuperação unificada de registros

bibliográficos descritivos de diferentes fontes de coleções físicas (documentos impressos e em mídia física)

e coleções eletrônicas (documentos digitais em formato on-line). Aborda, através de levantamento

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

1640.2024.v18.e024009

bibliográfico da área da Ciência da Informação, a evolução dos métodos de busca e recuperação da

informação – catálogo de acesso público, sistemas de metabusca e serviço de descoberta, realizando uma

comparação entre os mesmos e indicando as vantagens da incorporação de índices de assunto, grafo de

conhecimento, mapas de conceitos, vocabulários controlados e tesauros nas ferramentas de recuperação da

informação. Este artigo conclui que a adoção de linguagens documentárias no serviço de descoberta da

EBSCO proporciona maior capacidade para busca e recuperação de informações para os usuários finais,

assim como proporciona novas possibilidades de obtenção de documentos e informações em diferentes

domínios de conhecimento.

Palavras-chave: Recuperação de informação; Acesso a informação; Indexação; Serviços de descoberta;

Mecanismos de busca.

1 Introduction

The idea of “information retrieval” is in the genesis of Information Science itself.

Retrieving information means providing a person searching for information with the capacity to

find it after it is organized, regardless of its nature or medium, in order to transform and to have

the ability to transform society. The information retrieval process relies on techniques and tools

for both physical and electronic information retrieval. Regardless of whether the search tool is

physical or digital, its purpose is to enable users to search and retrieve the primary information

that is described, using patterns of descriptive and thematic representation, relying heavily on

documentary languages. Such documentary languages can be considered as standardized

languages, constructed with specific terms from an area of expertise, functioning as terminological

instruments that allow understanding that knowledge field and its development. In this sense, there

can be a variety of documentary languages, from controlled lists of terms and descriptors called

"controlled vocabularies", to thesauri – with stipulated logical-semantic relationships, ontologies,

concept maps, among many others. The Documentary Language / Terminology intersection occurs

at a time when "technical-scientific terms are used as descriptors, units that support the so-called

Documentary Language that provides information retrieval systems" (Krieger & Finatto, 2004, p.

59). Therefore, the triad connection between Documentary Language, Terminology and

Information Retrieval, proposed in this paper to improve information search and retrieval, becomes

evident.

Henning Spang-Hanssen (1970, p. 6) reinforces the importance of “information”,

“information retrieval” and “documentation work” for the image of library, and librarians’ work.

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

1640.2024.v18.e024009

Users can retrieve information by accessing it directly or through its representation (metadata) in

traditional catalogs or in systems based on information and communication technologies. In this

sense, Gernot Wersig (1993, p. 230) points out that:

libraries and retrieval systems only are different solutions to a basically identical

problem which is not questioned any more. Consequently, new technologies

arising in the same field could easily be adapted to similar solutions and promise

an expanded field of information science based on that same assumption-expert

systems, multimedia systems.

Therefore, from this point of view, new technologies are expected to be continuously

developed and applied to information retrieval, with the goal of broadening the reach of libraries

and Information Science itself.

In the field of information, terminology and documentary languages provide users with the

capacity to obtain a uniform representation of terms and concepts and to improve information

retrieval, because they use verbal patterns that allow referring terms (subjects) from preferred to

non-preferred and vice versa, in the same unified list, streamlining and rationalizing the entire

process to optimize information retrieval, in that case, in different databases. Retrieving

information is much more than retrieving “text”. Buckland (1991) claims that

Traditionally information storage and retrieval systems have emphasized text and

text-like records such as numbers and lists of names. The present interest in

image-handling serves to remind us that not all phenomena of interest in

information science are textual or text-like, or are even communications. We are

reminded, in particular, that information storage and retrieval needs to be

considered in relation to any phenomena that someone may wish to observe:

events, processes, images, and objects as well as texts. (Buckland, 1991, p. 586).

Therefore, Information Science and the tools created for information search and retrieval

also need to consider representations in the form of images, beyond text, as pointed out by

Buckland (1991). In this article, the topic of textual and visual tools, like concept maps, for

example, is addressed and how it can be used by libraries to support information search and

retrieval in catalogs and other tools based on information technology.

With the goal of enabling an integrated search of these different sources of information,

currently, libraries can use integrated search tools called “discovery services”. According to

Santana:

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

1640.2024.v18.e024009

Os serviços de descoberta são sistemas de busca, com a função de integrar

conteúdos informacionais de variadas fontes de dados, sejam elas remotas, como

aquelas disponíveis em plataformas de editores ou agregadores, ou fontes locais

como os sistemas de gerenciamento de bibliotecas, bibliotecas digitais,

repositórios institucionais, dentre outras (Santana, 2014, p. 2) [Discovery services

are search systems with the purpose of integrating informational content from a

variety of data sources, whether they are remote, such as those available on editor

or aggregator platforms, or local sources such as library management systems,

digital libraries, institutional repositories, among others].

One important feature that characterizes a discovery system is its capacity to create a

central index of metadata for unified search and retrieval:

These [discovery] services harvest content from local and remotely hosted

repositories and create a vastly comprehensive centralized index – to the article

level – based on a normalized schema across content types, well suited for rapid

search and retrieval of results ranked by relevancy. Content is enabled through

the harvesting of local library resources, combined with brokered agreements

with publishers and aggregators allowing access to their metadata and/or full-text

content for indexing purposes (Vaughan, 2011, p. 6).

Therefore, according to Vaughan (2011), discovery systems increase the capacity to search

and retrieve sources of information, since they include records from local and remote sources,

enabling the user to “discover” more sources of information in a single search.

The goal of the present paper is to determine how the use of documentary languages

(considered as remissive terminological standards) can expand and improve information retrieval

through discovery systems, specifically in the case of the EBSCO Discovery Service by EBSCO,

including three methods for searching and retrieving information records: an online catalog, a

metasearch tool and a discovery service. Next, specific characteristics and features of the EBSCO

Discovery Service™ (EDS), the focus of this paper, are presented. Finally is presented an analysis

of how documentary languages are applied by the EBSCO Discovery Service.

The methodology used in the present paper was a bibliographic literature review in the area

of Library and Information Science with respect to information retrieval, discovery services and

documentary languages, including publications by the EBSCO service company regarding the

EBSCO Discovery Service. This methodology is descriptive and exploratory with an exclusive

analysis of how EBSCO Discovery Service implements documentary languages.

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

1640.2024.v18.e024009

2 Tools for information search and retrieval

Online catalogs were one of the first systems based on information technology, created to

optimize the information search and retrieval process for libraries using technology. It was an

evolution from catalogs based on card catalogs arranged in alphabetical order in drawers of

physical cabinets. Morgan (1999) points out that

In many ways the card catalog was also an innovation. First of all, since it was

located in a public space, the catalog became a tool available to anybody, not just

librarians. Second, by organizing its contents by subjects as well as organizing

the collection by subject, the catalog, in many ways, mirrored the contents of

library shelves (Morgan, 1999, p. 38).

When online catalogs based on computer systems emerged, there was one more innovation,

which began to allow remote consultation of the catalog, outside of the library’s space: “Electronic

card catalogs removed some of the problems of physical card catalogs [...]. It was now possible to

search a library's collection from a distance beyond the walls of the library” (Morgan, 1999, p. 38).

These new online catalogs began to promote a greater capacity to search and retrieve, without

having to know the subjects beforehand: “Keyword and freetext searching functions reduced the

need to know (or discover) controlled vocabulary terms used to describe a catalog's content”

(Morgan, 1999, p. 38).

After the advent of online catalogs, created to substitute printed card catalogs as cited by

Morgan (1999), and with the emergence of editor databases, first a technology was developed that

simultaneously carried out distributed and real-time searches directly in these databases. This

technology was called a “federated search” or “metasearch”, and its purpose was to retrieve

bibliographic records by sending multiple consultations to remote information resources

simultaneously. However, these “metasearch” systems have some limitations due to their

“distributed” architecture, as pointed out in 2005 by Marshall Breeding:

The "distributed search" architecture behind the current generation of metasearch

products involves real-time queries cast to multiple remote resources. This model

depends on live connections to multiple remote resources that use some type of

search and retrieve protocol. The metasearch application receives the results from

each remote resource, parses and processes the records returned, and displays the

results to the searcher. This real-time distributed search model suffers from a

number of inherent limitations. For one thing, the number of live connections that

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

1640.2024.v18.e024009

can be sustained simultaneously is limited. Also, the slowest-performing remote

service defines the best performance of the overall search transaction (Breeding,

2005, p. 28).

According to the points highlighted by Marshall Breeding (2005), metasearch systems have

limitations that led him to believe that a new approach was needed in order to provide an integrated

search in different bases and catalogs: “Simpler, faster search and retrieve protocols will help

increase the efficiency of the current metasearch products, but I'm convinced that an entirely new

approach is needed” (Breeding, 2005, p. 28) and this is why he claims that “the emergence of

Google Scholar demonstrates that creating a centralized search service of library-oriented

scholarly resources may be more attainable than previously expected” (Breeding, 2005, p. 29),

since such systems rely on search systems based on central indexes created from a prior collection

of metadata: “Google's general Web search service indexes more than 8 billion items, sustains

thousands of requests per second, and still delivers almost-instant responses” (Breeding, 2005, p.

28). Breeding concludes that in order to search in a large number of sources, indexes built in

advance must be used:

Searching on the scale of the Web could not possibly function in a distributed

search model. Could you imagine a search service that depended on a dynamic

query sent to all known Web servers? It just wouldn't work. Searching a large

number of targets demands pre-built indexes (Breeding, 2005, p. 28).

Marshall Breeding then highlights the advantages of centralized search indexes, such as

those used by Google Scholar, in comparison with metasearch tools, which execute multiple,

simultaneous and “real-time” searches in different databases:

It now seems clear to me that the current strategy of metasearch that depends on

live connections casting queries to multiple remote information sources cannot

stand up to search systems based on centralized indexes that were created in

advance based on harvested content. I think of these competing approaches as

"distributed search" and "centralized search," respectively (Breeding, 2005, p.

27).

Metasearch tools were developed and used by libraries for a period in the 2000s, but due

to their limitations, in 2009, “library discovery services” were created, which allowed for the

unified retrieval of bibliographic records from a previously indexed central index of metadata.

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

1640.2024.v18.e024009

Considering that discovery services rely on a central index of metadata, different sources

of information can be indexed, such as library catalogs, open access bases, commercial bases and

digital libraries of documents created in the institution itself. In sum, any resource can be described

in the form of metadata.

With discovery tools, users continue to use the method of entering keywords into a single

search box, but now retrieval is done by multiple sources that were previously indexed in a central

index. Figure 1 presents a logical comparison of how the three aforementioned technologies

operate.

Figure 1 - A logical comparative schematic between the online catalog, metasearch tool and discovery

system to search and retrieve records from informational resources in libraries

Source: Created by the authors (2024)

Upon comparing the three search and retrieval technologies, one can see that in the online

catalog, users retrieve records only described by the librarian; in the metasearch, they retrieve them

from sources described by the librarian and from other sources, but in parallel and in “real time”;

and in discovery, they retrieve them from all sources in a unified manner from a previously indexed

central index. In the comparative analysis, one can see that discovery has a greater capacity of

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

1640.2024.v18.e024009

sources and records to be indexed, since it does not depend on live connections, thus greatly

broadening the capacity for search and retrieval.

When he elaborates on the first concepts of this new technology called “discovery”,

Marshall Breeding (2010) claims that

Initially, these new tools were called next-generation library catalogs, but now I

prefer to call them discovery interfaces. They aim to provide access to all aspects

of library collections, not just those managed in the traditional library catalog,

which is limited to the content managed by the integrated library system. It's all

about helping users discover library content in all formats, regardless of whether

it resides within the physical library or among its collections of electronic content,

spanning both locally owned materials and those accessed remotely through

subscriptions (Breeding, 2010, p. 1).

Novaes (2011) mentions the importance of information search tools, which combine the

sciences of documentary linguistics and computer science for information retrieval:

Na atualidade, grande parte das diferentes formas de organização de bancos de

dados na informática visa a armazenar material – muitos deles, linguísticos – e

disponibilizá-lo ao usuário/autor, a fim de que tenha uma gama de recursos para

suas produções na constituição do seu discurso (Novaes, 2011, p. 97-98)

[Currently, a large part of the different ways to organize databases in computer

science aims to store materials – many of them, linguistic – and make them

available to the user / author, in order for them to have a range of resources for

their productions in the developing their discourse].

Denise Novaes (2011) also states how language has the capacity to improve search systems:

“Acreditamos, a partir de uma compreensão mais competente da estrutura e do funcionamento da

linguagem, e do conhecimento de suas possibilidades, que seja possível um melhor ajuste de

instrumentos de busca e de editoração” (Novaes, 2011, p. 98) [We believe, based on a more

competent understanding of the structure and function of language, and on the knowledge of its

possibilities, that a better adjustment of search and editing instruments is possible].

In the next section, the characteristics and features of the EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS)

tool are described and, also, it is described how EDS uses different documentary languages with

the goal of improving the search for information, and how the results of information retrieval are

presented to end users in its user interface.

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

1640.2024.v18.e024009

3 EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) system

The EBSCO Discovery Service (or “EDS”) is developed and maintained by EBSCO

Information Services (https://www.ebsco.com), provided in the SaaS (“Software as a Service”)

model for online access through a web browser, mobile application and API. As stated by the

company, the EBSCO Discovery Service “supports integrated searching of content from full-text

databases, citation databases, and local content collections such as library catalogs and other

locally managed digital collections” (EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) - Information Sheet, 2020)

Moreover, according to EBSCO, its discovery service uses an index that pre-indexes the metadata

of heterogeneous sources: “The integrated search experience is achieved by compiling and

indexing metadata from a variety of content sources into a unified pre-indexed search platform”

(EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) - Information Sheet, 2020).

Next, it will be presented how the EBSCO Discovery Service indexes bibliographic content

and what are its main features for search and retrieval.

3.1 Indexed content on the EBSCO Discovery Service

According to information from the company, the central index of metadata from the

EBSCO Discovery Service has a collection of around 4 billion bibliographic records, obtained

from different sources and updated dynamically based on metadata sent by different editors and

content providers:

The EDS index represents a comprehensive collection of more than 3.7 billion

records from the world’s top publishers and information providers. EDS features

searchable full text from approximately 11,000 different publishers through the

index, many of which also include full text for searching [...] The agreements

EBSCO has in place publishers and other content providers emphasize

partnerships where rich metadata is provided (e.g., author-supplied abstracts,

author-supplied keywords, author affiliations, etc.) (EBSCO Discovery Service

(EDS) - Information Sheet, 2020).

The index of the EBSCO Discovery Service is fed by records sent periodically and in

advance by information publishers and providers. Moreover, libraries can also include in the index

bibliographic records from their own sources of information, such as “customized catalogs”,

including their online public access catalog (OPAC), their institutional repository, their journal

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

1640.2024.v18.e024009

portal or even a collection of digital documents, such as e-books or theses in different record

formats, such as MARC21, MARCXML, UNIMARC, Dublin Core or other formats of compatible

metadata (EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) Custom Catalog Questionnaire, 2022). As for the

delivery method, records can be uploaded to the FTP server from EBSCO or, if supported by the

provider, through the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH)

(Using OAI-PMH to Create and Maintain Records, 2020).

3.2 Features of the EBSCO Discovery Service

EDS discovery service provides end users with a search interface so that they can enter

terms and retrieve relevant records from the unified index of metadata.

In 2020, EBSCO launched a new version of its discovery service, called the “New EBSCO

Discovery Service™”. With this new version, EBSCO stated that the service fulfills a “user

journey” by providing the actions of accessing, searching, choosing and using to modernize the

features of its discovery tool:

Access. Search. Choose. Use. These are the stages of the library user’s journey.

However, users take similar journeys with Netflix, Amazon, Spotify or Google,

and their experiences with the personalized dashboards, sharing options, and

recommendation capabilities on these platforms have shaped their user interface

expectations. Rather than reinvent the wheel when it comes to upgrading

discovery tools, the new version of EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS)

combines the popular features of these commercial websites with the

functionalities necessary for libraries (Learning to Search/Searching to Learn,

2020).

As a basic feature of the EBSCO Discovery Service, users enter the terms/words in a search

box, activate the search (by clicking/touching the magnifying glass icon or pressing ENTER on

the keyboard) and then the tool lists the results on the screen, as illustrated in Figure 2. One can

see results obtained from different sources, their descriptive metadata, different options for

limiting or filtering the results, full-text access options and tools:

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

1640.2024.v18.e024009

Figure 2 – Screen with partial list of search results from the EBSCO Discovery Service interface

Source: EBSCO Discovery Service user interface (2024).

Each individual result returned also enables users to access the respective detailed record,

by clicking on the title of the resource or the link “View Details”. Additionally, users can use tools

that allow them to save the record as a favorite (Bookmark), copy the record citation (Cite), add

the record to a project (Add to project), share it in the cloud or by email (Share), or even download

the full text or the metadata of the retrieved result (Download).

Some additional characteristics and features noted by the company about the EBSCO

Discovery Service include: “Relevance ranking [...], Value ranking [...], Enhanced subject

precision [...], Query Term Adjacency [...], Intuitive search [...], Subject-specific profiles [...],

Research Starters [...], Journal Discovery [...], Access to full text [...], ILS Integrations […]”

(EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) - Information Sheet, 2020).

The application of documentary languages aims to provide terminological consistency,

increase the reach of the search, increase its thematic precision and improve the capacity to retrieve

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

1640.2024.v18.e024009

from heterogeneous sources. In the following section it will be highlighted which documentary

languages are applied to the EBSCO Discovery Service to meet these goals.

4 Documentary languages applied to the EBSCO Discovery Service

4.1 Subject descriptor terms

As previously indicated in this paper, documentary languages are part of the representative

scope of instruments applied to information that standardize terms and make their retrieval more

dynamic and optimized. In that regard, and with the aim of providing updated and specialized

information for public users, the basic documentary language that the EBSCO Discovery Service

uses is controlled thematic representation, in the form of subject descriptors which accompany

descriptive records. The EBSCO Discovery Service enables retrieval based on metadata, including

subject terms, whether provided by the author, or included in the records by the editors themselves,

or added by the EBSCO team.

Figure 3 shows an example of a record returned in the discovery tool, containing subject

descriptors informed by the author (Author-Supplied Keywords) and those included by the

EBSCO team (Subject Terms), based on the controlled vocabulary of terms.

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

1640.2024.v18.e024009

Figure 3 – Example of a bibliographic record from a database in the EBSCO Discovery Service with

thematic subject descriptors from the controlled vocabulary added to the record by EBSCO, and

keywords provided by the author

Source: EBSCO Discovery Service user interface (2024).

The use of terminology aims to improve record retrieval in library and information systems.

Cabré (2010) points out that:

En efecto, en el caso de la documentación, la terminología es un elemento clave

para representar el contenido de los documentos y para acceder a ellos. Los

thesaurus y las clasificaciones son básicamente inventarios terminológicos

organizados temáticamente y controlados formalmente (Cabré, 1995, p. 12) [in

the case of documentation, terminology is a key element to representing the

content of documents and accessing them. Thesauri and classifications are

basically terminological inventories organized thematically and controlled

formally].

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

1640.2024.v18.e024009

Therefore, one can argue that retrieval tools operate more efficiently to deliver results to

users when they use terminologies. Wersig and Neveling (1976) state that a thesauri is “a

controlled and dynamic documentary language containing semantically and generically terms,

which comprehensively covers a specific domain of knowledge” (Wersig & Neveling, 1976, p.

118). Therefore, incorporating terms from a thesauri in discovery systems improves indexing and

search consistency, captures hierarchical and associative relationships, and increases precision and

recall in retrieving relevant records. These benefits contribute to a better search experience and

information discovery on the part of users.

In addition to records cataloged by librarians, discovery systems include metadata records

produced by editors. According to Vaughan (2011):

Publisher agreements can permit these discovery services to index their content

and provide access to citation-level metadata within the central index to all

customers regardless of whether the local library itself has a licensing agreement

with that publisher and has purchased access to this content. [...] In addition, each

of these discovery services includes a huge amount of open-access content

(Vaughan, 2011, p. 10).

By allowing discovery services to index their content and make metadata available at the

citation level, editor contracts expand the reach and visibility of academic knowledge even more,

promoting the wide and effective dissemination of research and scientific discoveries that are part

of their publications.

4.2 Controlled vocabularies, thesauri and knowledge graphs

Controlled vocabularies and thesauri (considered as types of documentary languages)

provide greater precision for information search and retrieval when they are incorporated into

online catalogs, discovery services or the databases that contain them. According to Lima (2010):

Para garantir uma adequada representação e recuperação da informação, em

quaisquer bases de dados, utiliza-se uma linguagem documentária, isto é, um

vocabulário controlado ou um tesauro, para controlar sinonímia, ambiguidades e

as relações entre os descritores utilizados no processo de indexação, seja ele

manual ou automático (Lima, 2010, p. 3) [In order to guarantee adequate

representation and retrieval of information, in any database, a documentary

language is used, that is, a controlled vocabulary or a thesauri, in order to control

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

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synonymy, ambiguities and the relations between descriptors used in the indexing

process, whether manual or automatic].

By adopting controlled vocabularies and thesauri, information search and retrieval systems

aim to improve the precision and relevance of results and provide greater thematic consistency of

resources. EBSCO reports that it uses thesauri and controlled vocabularies to search and retrieve

information in its databases indexed in the central index of the EBSCO Discovery Service, in

which two or more vocabulary subject headings from the Comprehensive Subject Index are added

by EBSCO to each article:

In order to enable the most powerful searching of these databases, EBSCO has

created a thesaurus of terms known as the Comprehensive Subject Index (CSI).

Each article indexed by EBSCO is associated with two or more subject headings

from this vocabulary which describe the specific content of that article. The use

of a controlled list of subject headings allows every article on a given subject to

be indexed with the same terms, regardless of the synonyms or circumlocutions

used in the article itself. Use of the CSI also ensures that subjects are indexed at

an appropriate level of detail (What is EBSCO's Controlled Vocabulary?, 2018).

Additionally, EBSCO states that it performs terminology mapping between subject

indexes, in order to improve search and retrieval: “Subject indexes contain controlled vocabularies,

which link concepts with different terminology. EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) includes

complex mapping technology to leverage and connect these for improved search results” (Quality

Data & Precision Search, 2023). The subject thesauri and vocabularies used by EBSCO to enrich

the records from their central index include: the American Medical Association Complete Medical

Encyclopedia, APA PsycInfo ⎯ Thesauri, Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management Library ⎯

Subject Terms, ERIC ⎯ Thesauri, FSTA - Food Science and Technology Abstracts ⎯ Thesauri,

GLBT Thesauri, Library, Information Science & Technology Thesauri, MEDLINE ⎯ Medical

Subject Headings – MeSH, MLA International Bibliography ⎯ Terms Thesauri, Petroleum

Abstracts Thesauri, Political Science Thesauri, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection –

Subjects, Sports Thesauri, among dozens of others (Which EBSCOhost database authorities,

2020).

Another tool used by EBSCO is “Enhanced Subject Precision”, which performs

terminology equivalence mapping between different vocabularies and thesauri”:

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

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Enhanced Subject Precision utilizes mapped vocabulary terms from multiple

sources and uses natural language to add precision for topical searches. When a

user’s search term matches a known concept, records about the concept receive

an additional relevance boost. Multilingual search queries are also mapped to

increase opportunities for concept matching (How is relevance ranking

determined, 2020).

According to Lima (2010), using terminology in an information system provides

knowledge transfer between whomever registers the information and whomever consumes the

registered information:

Ao utilizar a terminologia de um domínio, na construção de uma linguagem

documentária em um sistema de informação, possibilita-se a transferência do

conhecimento, pois as informações documentárias produzidas com um

referencial terminológico garantem o consenso entre os interlocutores de uma

área (Lima, 2010, p. 22) [When using the terminology of a domain to build a

documentary language in an information system, knowledge transfer is possible,

since documentary information produced with a terminological reference

guarantees consensus between the interlocutors of an area].

A terminological description can be in one knowledge domain or interdisciplinary.

However, concepts in practical life are related to one another even between different domains and

areas of knowledge. As such, one must start thinking not only about descriptor terms for isolated

subjects within an area of knowledge, but about how to represent relationships that exist between

concepts, including between different knowledge domains, taking advantage of the full potential

of linked data and semantic relationships. The next section will discuss how knowledge graphs

and linked data can improve user experience in information search and retrieval in libraries.

4.3 Knowledge graphs

While before, concepts resided within only one area of knowledge, now, sciences are

increasingly interdisciplinary and pluridisciplinary. Wersig predicted in 1993 that Information

Science would have to invent some way to enable navigation between related concepts:

Since everything is connected with everything somehow information science

would have to develop some kind of conceptual navigation system (which

perhaps develops into the postmodern form of theory). This is the difference

between the information scientist and the weaving bird: The latter already has its

plans provided by evolution. In our case the next step of evolution in science

waits to be done, by whomever (Wersig, 1993, p. 239).

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

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The first researchers to introduce the idea of structuring knowledge in the form of a

semantic relations graph were Stokman and Vries in 1988. The base of knowledge graphs starts

with descriptions between concepts within the same discipline and between different disciplines.

We will refer to conceptual knowledge as a declarative representation.

Furthermore, the core of conceptual knowledge consists of explicitly defined

types of relations between concepts. Various types can be distinguished, e.g., they

can express definitional as well as empirical relations between concepts (Stokman

& Vries, 1988, p. 188).

Knowledge graphs emerged as an option to interlink concepts, joining different domains

by linking terms and concepts, using semantic relations and enabling search beyond the text, as

Buckland (1991) had predicted.

Regarding knowledge graphs, authors Zamini, Reza and Rabiei (2022) describe it as a

documentary language tool that represents interlinked entities, relations and semantic descriptions

of entities:

A knowledge graph (KG), also known as a knowledge base, is a structured

representation of facts that describes a collection of interlinked descriptions of

entities, relationships, and semantic descriptions of entities. KGs, as a compelling

abstraction, help organize structured knowledge by linking them from multiple

sources. The difference between the knowledge base and knowledge graphs is the

assumption of being less rigidly defined, structured, homogeneous, and stable

schema breaks which empower knowledge graphs to be more scalable. The

advantage of KG is the better representation of heterogeneous objects using a

unified space to connect them (Zamini et al, 2022, p. 1).

Knowledge graphs are based on ontologies (specification) and concepts (an abstract idea).

According to Gruber (1993), the term “ontology” in the context of knowledge sharing is related to

the descriptions themselves of concepts, their representation and relations:

An ontology is an explicit specification of a conceptualization. The term is

borrowed from philosophy, where an ontology is a systematic account of

Existence. For knowledge-based systems, what "exists" is exactly that which can

be represented. When the knowledge of a domain is represented in a declarative

formalism, the set of objects that can be represented is called the universe of

discourse. This set of objects, and the formalized relationships among them, are

reflected in the representational vocabulary with which a knowledge-based

program represents knowledge. Thus, we can describe the ontology of a program

by defining a set of representational terms. In such an ontology, definitions

associate the names of entities in the universe of discourse (e.g. classes, relations,

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

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functions, or other objects) with human-readable text describing what the names

are meant to denote, and formal axioms that constrain the interpretation and well-

formed use of these terms (Gruber, 1993, p. 199).

The main idea behind the Knowledge Graph is to use semantic relationships of ontologies.

One of the standard ways to specify relationship statements is with the Resource Description

Framework (RDF). According to the Guia de Web Semântica (“Guide to the Semantic Web”), by

Carlos Laufer (2015):

O formato das afirmações é simples. Uma afirmação RDF consiste de três

elementos (uma tripla) e tem a seguinte estrutura: <sujeito> <predicado>

<objeto>. Uma afirmação RDF expressa uma relação entre dois recursos. O

sujeito e o objeto representam os dois recursos sendo relacionados; o predicado

representa a natureza desta relação, que é formulada de modo direcional (do

sujeito para o objeto) e é chamada em RDF de propriedade. Um objeto pode

também ser um literal, definindo uma propriedade para um recurso (Laufer, 2015)

[The statement format is simple. An RDF statement consists of three elements (a

triple) and has the following structure: <subject> <predicate> <object>. An RDF

statement expresses a relation between two resources. The subject and object

represent two resources being related; the predicate represents the nature of this

relation, which is formulated in a directional way (from subject to object) and is

called a property in RDF. An object can also be a literal, defining a property for

a resource].

Combining terms from multiple vocabularies and thesauri, the discovery service from

EBSCO created and maintains its Knowledge Graph (EDS Knowledge Graph) for subject searches

based on synonyms, controlled vocabularies, natural language and mapping relations, through

ontologies:

A discovery service with a sophisticated Knowledge Graph (a digital database

network that tags connections between concepts, subjects, and topics) can

understand ideas independently of the words used to express them. This means

that the patron doesn’t have to know the “right” word for their search. Instead,

the discovery service figures that out for them (Faith, 2021).

Using a knowledge graph helps its research on interlinking concepts in vocabularies,

thesauri, natural language terms and synonyms to create a concept map in multiple languages.

According to EBSCO:

EDS is more than a discovery tool. It is also a learning environment in which

users are guided toward improving their search terms and finding items they may

have overlooked otherwise. […] The key to this learning environment is the EDS

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

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Knowledge Graph. Built with the help of a small army of subject matter experts

drawing on numerous subject indexes, the Knowledge Graph ensures an excellent

search that can turn even inadequate queries into quality results. Therefore, users

don’t need to start off as expert researchers to get expert information. The

Knowledge Graph does this by mapping new datasets that incorporate natural

language, extensive subject vocabularies, and a vast array of synonyms and

concepts in more than 280 languages and dialects. Not only does this enhance

search and relevance rankings for EBSCOhost and EDS, but the multi-lingual

capability allows people from around the world to enter search terms in their

native tongue (The Evolution of the EBSCO Discovery Service, 2020).

The Knowledge Graph developed by EBSCO aims to improve the capacity to search using

documentary languages as a visual tool that enables greater precision and an additional search

capacity, by connecting terms from different knowledge domains.

4.4 Concept Map

In order to search in the knowledge graph, EBSCO developed a tool called a Concept Map,

which can be consulted by end users in the discovery system interface. The concept map

implements primarily “Concept Map Theory” developed by researchers Joseph Novak and Alberto

Cañas (1984), who define concept maps by relating terms through semantic relations between two

concepts, creating an interconnected image:

Concept maps are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge.

They include concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes of some type, and

relationships between concepts indicated by a connecting line linking two

concepts. Words on the line, referred to as linking words or linking phrases,

specify the relationship between the two concepts. We define concept as a

perceived regularity in events or objects, or records of events or objects,

designated by a label. The label for most concepts is a word, although sometimes

we use symbols such as + or %, and sometimes more than one word is used.

Propositions are statements about some object or event in the universe, either

naturally occurring or constructed. Propositions contain two or more concepts

connected using linking words or phrases to form a meaningful statement.

Sometimes these are called semantic units, or units of meaning. Figure 4 shows

an example of a concept map that describes the structure of concept maps and

illustrates the above characteristics (Novak & Cañas, 1984, p. 1).

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

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Figure 4 –A concept map showing the key features of concept maps.

Concept maps tend to be read top-down

Source: Novak & Cañas (1984)

Gercina Lima (2004) also describes concept maps as a tool that organizes knowledge aimed

at representing the way in which subjects are mentally structured by humans:

Uma ferramenta de organização do conhecimento, capaz de representar ideias ou

conceitos na forma de um diagrama hierárquico escrito ou gráfico, capaz de

indicar as relações entre os conceitos, procurando refletir a organização da

estrutura cognitiva sobre um determinado assunto (Lima, 2004, p. 135) [A

concept map is] a tool for organizing knowledge, capable of representing ideas

or concepts in the form of a written or graphic hierarchical diagram, capable of

indicating the relations between the concepts, with the purpose of reflecting the

organization of the cognitive structure on a determined subject].

According to Lima (2004), concept maps as a tool for documentary language can

collaborate towards obtaining information, transforming it into knowledge and supporting

information retrieval systems by providing visual and interactive interfaces that are easy to use:

Uma das principais funções da mente é interpretar o significado das informações

adquiridas e transformá-las em conhecimento, o que se torna mais fácil quando

são apresentadas em formato gráfico. O mapa conceitual pode ser um suporte

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

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apropriado para a arquitetura de sistemas de hipertexto por possibilitar uma

interface atrativa, interativa e fácil de ser utilizada, facilitando a navegação em

redes semânticas (Lima, 2004, p. 137) [One of the main functions of the mind is

to interpret the meaning of information acquired and transform it into knowledge,

which is made easier when it is represented in an image format. Concept maps

can be an appropriate support for the hypertext system architecture, since they

provide an attractive, interactive and user-friendly interface, facilitating

navigation in semantic networks].

Therefore, as a visual documentary language tool, concept maps broaden thematic relations

that need to be built mentally when they are acquired by the user based on purely textual

documentary languages. Lima (2004) reinforces this view, when she argues that

O mapa conceitual, com sua característica gráfica, é um instrumento poderoso

para permitir a compreensão das relações entre os conceitos e do conhecimento

no todo. Para o cientista da informação, que lida com a análise de assunto para a

estruturação de uma certa área do conhecimento, o mapa conceitual pode tornar-

se um instrumento importante para ajudá-lo a entender e a lidar com estruturas

informacionais (Lima, 2004, p. 137) [Concept maps, graphic in nature, are a

powerful instrument to facilitate understanding relations between concepts and

knowledge overall. For information scientists, who deal with subject analysis in

order to structure a certain area of knowledge, concept maps can become an

important instrument to help them understand and deal with informational

structures].

As described by EBSCO (The Evolution of the EBSCO Discovery Service, 2020), the

Knowledge Graph by EBSCO increases the capacity to search based on synonyms and semantic

relations:

The Knowledge Graph does more than recognize multiple meanings, however. It

also shows the user connections between subjects via a visualization tool called

the Concept Map. For example, a search for “Italy” provides an image of Italy

with multiple spokes extending from it, each representing an Italy-related

concept, such as “Rome,” “Alps,” or “Papal States.” These spokes suggest

additional subjects to the user, and they can relaunch their search with an

improved query. This connect-the-dots approach facilitates better information

literacy, as it helps users hone their searches (The Evolution of the EBSCO

Discovery Service, 2020).

Researcher Ashleigh Faith (2021) reinforces how the use of concept maps associated to the

knowledge graph by EBSCO increases search capacity while also making it equitable:

A discovery service with a sophisticated Knowledge Graph (a digital database

network that tags connections between concepts, subjects, and topics) can

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

1640.2024.v18.e024009

understand ideas independently of the words used to express them. This means

that the patron doesn’t have to know the “right” word for their search. Instead,

the discovery service figures that out for them (Faith, 2021).

Library users learn in different ways. By seeing and exploring concepts in innovative and

alternative forms, the idea is to allow for more possibilities to make new discoveries and enable a

greater understanding of areas with which they are not yet familiar as researchers (new concepts)

or that are outside of the traditional sphere of specialization (concepts from other domains). The

purpose of using knowledge graphs and subject mapping is to enable a more equitable search. As

researcher Faith (2021) claims:

EBSCO has been investigating the impact that a patron’s search language has on

how they do their research — what methods they use, what words they employ

— and has evolved EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) into a search tool that

can meet the needs of all its users. Whether a patron is trained in “libraryspeak,”

or whether they are searching in different languages, they can perform a search

that is just as good as any done by an expert researcher. This is called “equitable

search” and it has opened discovery to a more diverse array of information access

points, meaning EDS understands more words in other languages as well as

"everyday" English. EDS achieved this in several stages through its Knowledge

Graph: * Synonyms and controlled subjects were mapped together; * Users'

natural language was mapped to each subject grouping, including more than 200-

plus languages and dialects; * Subjects were then mapped to each other with

explicate relationships, such as “type of” and “symptom of” (Faith, 2021).

The knowledge graph relates concepts and enables data linking, a structured documentary

language tool. To “view” concepts and their relationships, created based on this knowledge graph,

EBSCO provides, through its discovery tool, the “EBSCO Concept Map”, which will be addressed

in the next section.

The EBSCO Concept Map, which is available on the search results screen, is activated by

users on demand, based on the search term or expression that users enter into the search box, after

clicking on “Concept Map”, as indicated in Figure 5:

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

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Figure 5 – EBSCO Discovery Service Interface with search results for the term “mercury” with the option

“Concept Map” option highlighted on the left-hand menu

Source: EBSCO Discovery Service user interface (2024).

After clicking on the “Concept map” option in the left menu, the user is directed to a new

screen (Figure 6), in which they can first choose the knowledge domain desired for the term, based

on a suggested list. The goal of this first step is to provide to user the disambiguation between

homographs. A brief meaning of the term in each domain is presented together with each option.

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

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Figure 6 – Selection of knowledge domain for the term “mercury” in the EBSCO Concept Map

Source: EBSCO Discovery Service user interface (2024).

After the user chooses the desired domain (by clicking on it or touching it), a second screen

is shown with the concept map and the concepts. The concept related to the search term is at the

center and semantically related concepts are around it, within the knowledge domain selected, as

in the example illustrated in Figure 7. The concept map presented of the EBSCO Discovery Service

is a visual representation of the EBSCO Knowledge Graph for the chosen term.

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

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Figure 7 – Screen with the EBSCO Concept Map for the concept “Mercury”, as the planet, in the

knowledge domain “Physics and Astronomy”

Source: EBSCO Discovery Service user interface (2024).

This concept map tool also enables users to see the definition of each concept and add it to

the “Search builder” (see Figure 7), to compose a new search strategy in the discovery tool. As

such, the concept descriptions (see Figure 7) on their own already provide users with the ability to

learn about topics that can open new perspectives, so that they can either focus their research on

some specific aspect or redirect their research or study. Consequently, this documentary language

tool has turned into a source of information in and of itself.

By applying documentary languages in a combined way in the discovery service, the

EBSCO Discovery Service aims to provide greater precision and a more assertive retrieval of the

content desired, as well as the discovery of new related concepts, displayed by the concept map

and created based on the knowledge graph, which would not be visible in traditional lists of search

results.

The integration of specialized documentary languages allows the discovery of new and

interconnected concepts beyond the immediate scope of the research query, beyond the descriptors

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

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indicated solely by the producer of the information. Through the concept map, for example,

generated from the underlying knowledge graph, users can discover related ideas and topics that

may not have been apparent in traditional keyword-based searches alone. This holistic approach

broadens the user's understanding and promotes interdisciplinary exploration and discovery of

relevant information, including in an interdisciplinary way, in other domains of knowledge.

In addition to these advantages, the use of documentary languages increases the overall

accuracy of research results in discovery systems, taking into account variations in terminology

and language use. This linguistic flexibility ensures that users receive comprehensive results, even

when expressing their search phrases through different terms.

In general, the incorporation of documentary languages in discovery services enriches the

search experience, providing greater accuracy in retrieval, as well as allowing the discovery of

new concepts and the improvement in the accuracy of results.

Conclusion

Based on the above discussion, one can see how the EBSCO Discovery Service uses

different documentary languages with the goal of improving the experience of information search

and retrieval for end users, through unified retrieval and the use of different documentary

languages.

One can conclude, based on this discussion, that using documentary languages in discovery

systems provides greater return on investment (ROI) with respect to the application of

documentary languages: the more structured the documentary languages used are, the greater the

consistency in terminology and, consequently, the greater the value for end users, as illustrated in

Figure 8, by Ashleigh Faith (2020):

MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to

Information Retrieval in Libraries: a review of EBSCO Discovery Service System. Brazilian Journal of

Information Science: research trends, vol. 18, publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-

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Figure 8 – Documentary languages applicable to information retrieval tools

Source: Faith (2020).

With respect to information retrieval systems used by libraries, documentary languages,

based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), play a significant role in

organizing and indexing information resources, since they allow us to take advantage of the full

potential of the normalized, structured terminology for a broader and more precise retrieval,

especially useful in libraries that have large material collections and heterogeneous sources.

The technology itself, whether software or hardware, is not capable of providing an

effective information search and retrieval experience on its own, regardless of the tool or software

used: whether an online catalog, metasearch or discovery service. It is the structured work of

professionals on descriptive and thematic representation, based on standards and documentary

languages, which enable greater success so that the library service can achieve its ultimate goal:

to provide users access to information, regardless of the format, nature or source in which the

resource is located.

Automation in libraries and information units certainly makes work more efficient for those

who describe information – professional librarians undertaking technical processing – and for

those who search and retrieve information - end users who need and wish to access it. The work

28 
MAIMONE , Giovana Deliberali; VIANA, Michelângelo Mazzardo Marques. Documentary Languages Applied to 
Information  Retrieval  in Libraries:  a review of  EBSCO Discovery  Service  System.   Brazilian  Journal  of 
Information  Science:  research  trends, vol.  18,  publicação contínua, 2024, e024009. DOI: 10.36311/1981-
1640.2024.v18.e024009 
of  information  professionals  is  necessary  to  demonstrate  and  provide  this  information,  using 
effective tools, systems, methods and languages. 
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Received: 03/01/2024 Accepted: 25/02/2024