About the Open Discovery Initiative

The Open Discovery Initiative (ODI) aims at defining standards and/or best practices for the new generation of library discovery services that are based on indexed search. These discovery services are primarily based upon indexes derived from journals, ebooks and other electronic information of a scholarly nature. The content comes from a range of information providers and products--commercial, open access, institutional, etc.

Given the growing interest and activity in the interactions between information providers and discovery services, a more standard set of practices is required for the ways that content is represented in discovery services and for the interactions between the creators of these services and the information providers whose resources they represent.

The Recommended Practice was created by members of the ODI Working Group, which sunsetted in June 2014 with the document publication.  The ODI Standing Committee is now responsible for support and promotion of ODI work. 

The ODI Standing Committee is charged with the following tasks:

  • Promotion and education of ODI Recommended Practice for all stakeholders
  • Support for content providers and discovery service providers during adoption and completion of conformance checklists
  • Provide a forum for ongoing discussion related to all aspects of discovery platforms for all stakeholders
  • Consider next steps for items deemed out scope from the original ODI Work Group Recommended Practice
  • Identify emerging needs in the open discovery space and determine appropriate courses of action
  • Make recommendations to the D2D topic committee on further work items required to fulfill the goals of the Open Discovery Initiative