Serials Solutions Pioneers New Discovery Service, Addressing Libraries' Most Critical Need
A revolutionary new service from Serials Solutions, supported by industry heavy-weights ProQuest and Gale, will create Google-like searching of the full breadth of content found in library collections—from books and videos to e-resources at the article level. The Summon™ unified discovery service addresses what research shows is a fundamental barrier between libraries and users: a simple, obvious starting point for searches. The Summon™ service is in beta with academic libraries throughout North America and will be available for purchase later this year.
“This is what libraries have been dreaming of. What Google does for the Worldwide Web, the Summon service will do for libraries,” said Jane Burke, Vice-President, Serials Solutions. “It’s a transformation in library service that addresses our community’s most pressing need: a simple entry point to the vastness of library collections. One search box, one results screen, one path to the best, most credible content.”
The Summon™ service’s library-branded search box will eliminate the confusion users have in finding a starting point for their research, making library collections simple to use and understand. Users will enter their search term and the service will return - nearly instantaneously - a list of the physical and digital materials that are appropriate for them. From this relevancy-ranked list, they will be able to click through to full-text articles, but also find the books, specialty research and bibliographic tools, and services that will propel their research.
The Summon™ service goes beyond federated search and leap-frogs next-generation OPACs by searching the library records as well as a full-complement of electronic content - at the article level - all together. It’s the result of Serials Solutions’ unique combination of assets and expertise, enabled by the participation of the industry’s leading content providers. The lead participants are Gale and ProQuest - including ProQuest’s lauded CSA and Chadwyck Healey brands. Additional participants are Springer, Taylor & Francis, Sage Publications, and an extensive, rapidly-growing list of the world’s most prestigious publishers.
True to Serials Solutions tradition, the Summon™ service is designed with library needs in mind. It’s hosted, making it nearly effortless to implement and easy to support with low impact on library staff. It’s also built with an open API so that it can be integrated with existing library Web sites or campus systems.
The Summon™ service is being developed in close cooperation with library beta partners. Cyndy Pawlek and David Seaman of Dartmouth College Library comment that the Summon™ unified discovery service “holds great promise in getting us to our goal of having a simple, speedy, customizable interface that unifies the breadth of our scholarly material—whether that material is owned, subscribed to, freely available or able to be borrowed.” Anne Prestamo, Associate Dean for Collection and Technology Services, Oklahoma State University Libraries, adds “We see the ground-breaking scale of the Summon™ initiative as a unique opportunity to streamline the discovery-to-delivery process for our users. As a result, it allows us to maximize the return on our substantial investment in full-text content and authoritative databases.”
To learn more about the Summon™ unified discovery service, visit http://www.serialssolutions.com/summon.
About Serials Solutions
Founded in 2000 by a librarian for librarians, Serials Solutions is the global leader in E-Resource Access and Management Services (ERAMS) that serves more than 2,000 libraries of all sizes and types. Serials Solutions® KnowledgeWorks, the authoritative e-resource knowledgebase, is the foundation for Serials Solutions® 360, the only complete and integrated e-resource access and management solution.
Serials Solutions also is the exclusive source for Ulrichs™ Global Serials Intelligence and represents the AquaBrowser Library® unified discovery interface in the academic market in North America. The WebFeat® federated search service recently acquired by ProQuest soon will be incorporated into the Serials Solutions family of access and discovery services.
Serials Solutions provides fast implementation, easy customization, and outstanding value to libraries throughout the world. For more information, please visit www.serialssolutions.com or call 1-866-SERIALS. Serials Solutions is a business unit of ProQuest LLC.
About ProQuest
ProQuest provides seamless access to and navigation of more than 125 billion digital pages of the world’s scholarship, delivering it to the desktop and into the workflow of serious researchers in multiple fields, from arts, literature, and social science to science, technology, and medicine. ProQuest is part of the Cambridge Information Group.
ProQuest’s vast content pools are available to researchers through libraries of all types and include the world’s largest digital newspaper archive, periodical databases comprising the output of more than 9,000 titles and spanning more than 500 years, the pre-eminent dissertation collection, and various other scholarly collections. Users access the information through the ProQuest® and CSA Illumina™ online information systems, Chadwyck-Healey™ electronic and microform resources, UMI® microform and print reference products, eLibrary® and SIRS® educational resources, Ulrich’s® Serials Analysis System, COS Scholar Universe, and Serials Solutions® resource management tools. Through the expertise of business units Serials Solutions and COS, ProQuest provides technological tools that allow researchers and libraries to better manage and use their information resources. For more information, visit www.proquest.com, www.proquest.co.uk, and www.csa.com.