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.