Web scale discovery services for the library environment have the capacity to more easily connect
researchers with the library’s vast information repository. This includes locally held and hosted
content, such as physical holdings, digital collections, and local institutional repositories. Perhaps
more significantly, web scale discovery also accesses a huge array of remotely hosted content,
often purchased or licensed by the library, such as publisher and aggregator content for tens of
thousands of full-text journals, additional content from abstracting and indexing resources, and
content from open access repositories. This paper defines web scale discovery and highlights
importance of discovery tools being used by the libraries.