How UK academic libraries choose metasearch systems

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate how UK academic libraries choose metasearch systems; the choice processes they use; the main influences on their choices; and whether these choice processes could be made easier. Design/methodology/approach - The project used a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research methods, consisting of a literature review, two semi-structured interviews, and an electronic questionnaire, distributed to systems librarians in UK university libraries. Findings - It was found that many processes are repeated across libraries. It was also found that a prior/existing relationship with vendors has a strong influence on how libraries chose metasearch systems. Originality/value - There has been no prior research explicitly investigating how a range-of-libraries chose metasearch systems. The results could be of value to libraries that are choosing a metasearch system, or other systems such as library management systems. It could also be of value to anyone interested in general choice procedures in libraries. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.