Resource Recommender Guidelines

Owned by Corinna Baksik
Last updated: Sept 06, 2023
3 min read

The Resource Recommender is a feature in the Primo UI (HOLLIS, Databases) that can be configured to display a specified recommendation in response to a specified search query. For example, the Resource Recommender is currently set to display a link to our AAAS access to the journal Science when a user enters the search query “science” or the search query “science journal.” Recommendations are presented above the results with the text “We Suggest.”

The Discovery to Delivery Working Group invites staff to suggest resources to add to the Resource Recommender in keeping with the following guidelines.   

Example of suggestions for search term "music:"



What purposes or problems do we use the Resource Recommended to address?  

The Resource Recommender should help to connect the user to what they are most likely looking for when their search results do not. An appropriate use case is when terms for a frequently searched known item (New York Times) do not retrieve the most common anticipated result (current issues, online). The Resource Recommender also may be used to highlight a major resource that might not be familiar to the user but is highly relevant for the term(s) searched.  

Example of suggestion for search term "oed:"

What is appropriate content? 

The Resource Recommender is used selectively. Use it to promote resources that might otherwise be difficult for students to discover on their own. Before suggesting a recommended resource and the search terms that will retrieve it, consider whether it is likely to be what most users are looking for when they search those terms in HOLLIS. 

Recommended resources should: 

  • help users find journals or e-resources with alternate names or frequently misspelled titles 
  • correct for ranking problems with frequently searched resources that are hard to identify in the HOLLIS results list  
  • promote a select number of LibGuides on high interest subjects (vetted for conformance to the Harvard LibGuides Best Practices and recommended by the Virtual Reference & Research Working Group  
  • highlight the top three databases for subject areas used in Database Search 

Additional uses will be approved if user research or HOLLIS search query logs support their value. 

Recommended resources should not:  

  • violate user expectations (when users search for a database name, they usually want to get to the database, not to a LibGuide explaining how to use the database) 
  • have content that will likely become dated or have links that may not be maintained 

        If the resource is a web site, consider if it might be better to create a catalog record instead.  

Submitting resources for inclusion in the Resource Recommender

Send the resource name and HOLLIS permalink or resource url, along with the keywords that should retrieve it, to the ITS E-Resources team: https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.OIS:eresourcehelp

  

LTS/ITS staff: instructions for configuration

  • Change "Update for owner" to Harvard
  • use the Resource Type dropdown to configure different types
    • Use the "database" type for E-Resources
    • Use Library Guide for LibGuides
    • Use "custom1" for print resources