Bill, the BBC's head of partnership archive development, was just one of a number of keynote speakers at the conference who attempted to uncover the work of resource discovery in unusual ways. Antonio Acuña, head of data.gov.uk, applied the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game to data and openness while Alastair Dunning, The European Library Programme Manager, drew on King Canute to explore the work of Europeana and the European Library.

Held at the British Library last month, Discovery 2013 brought together international experts to discuss ways of collaborating to address the common technical, political and social challenges that hold back the discovery of resources for research and teaching. They came from as far afield as Brazil and Canada and from the full range of sectors tackling resource discovery – archives, libraries, universities, museums and other cultural and educational institutions. Commercial interests were also represented. As Paul Walk, director of UKOLN’s innovation support centre and one of the keynote speakers, commented, "It was particularly encouraging to see Google directly represented at the summit – this did much to reduce the familiar 'elephant in the room' problem".

Lively seminar sessions allowed delegates to share their views on three themes: meeting user needs with open approaches; technical coping strategies for resource discovery; and exploration of effective progress. Six priority areas emerged from these seminars which helped to form a collaborative action plan for the future.

While the shortlist of priorities – which had been voted on by all delegates over the two days – was hotly debated in the final panel session, “it showed that we do have many aims in common and also highlighted differences in language and in perspective across libraries, archives and museums. It probably showed that we are on the right track, because the priority actions reflected where we are now and what we are doing now," concluded Jane Stevenson of Mimas.

The role of libraries in resource discovery and the impact on librarians of the changing ways in which people find the resources they need was a common theme throughout the discussions.

"We tend to be focused on 'How do we get people to start at the library?' and all discovery services depend on starting at libraries. We can improve the student experience by saying, 'How do we get those library resources out where people are actually searching?'" said Bruce Heterick, vice-president of JSTOR.

One method is to use the commercial routes that people already know. "I haven’t been into a library in about 12 years – physically. But I use library resources all the time," said Cameron Neylon, advocacy director of PloS, citing Google, PubMed and Twitter as the services he uses to find what he needs.

"Why do we need to develop our own systems and searches when there are commercial alternatives already out there?" agreed Hans Jansen of the National Library of the Netherlands. He also questioned the traditional library focus on metadata by highlighting the fact that most digitisation is now of full texts.

“The true challenge is access to and delivery of information, not the discovery of information. There also was a clear message that there is the need to better understand how and where people get their information and more importantly, why they make these choices," concluded OCLC's Lynn Connaway.

Roly Keating, chief executive of the British Library, who gave the closing keynote, ended the summit on an upbeat note, not just for librarians but for all who work in the field of resource discovery. "There are many political and commercial forces that compete for data and standards but the real citizen-value for everyone lies in discoverability. Everything should be about getting people to what they need, not what we think they need. This needs intense collaborative working from organisations like these to make it work. I am optimistic," he declared.

Watch videos of the plenary sessions, see the slides and read summaries at the Jisc Discovery Summit 2013 website.