Metadata is more important than ever for information and content providers, playing a critical role in digital transformations, machine learning, collaborations, accessibility, analytics, and more. But, for all the discussion in our industry about metadata for scholarly communications, we lack a shared framework for assessing its impact on commercial goals, users’ experiences, and other objectives. This project was inspired by Crossref’s call to take up independent research that explores how new methods or metrics could assess metadata performance and its value to information users. With our interest in academic books and a passion for the information experiences of today’s learners, scholars, and authors, we designed this project to illuminate the discoverability of books with and without DOIs in Google Scholar.