World Book, Inc. and Infogroup Content to Enhance Serials Solutions Summon™ Service
Seattle – June 30, 2011 – Serials Solutions, a business unit of ProQuest LLC, today announced that researchers will soon be able to discover reliable reference content from World Book and Infogroup’s ReferenceUSA through the Summon™ service.
World Book has long been committed to publishing award-winning encyclopedias and reference sources across all disciplines and topics, and digital products for both children and adults. Infogroup’s ReferenceUSA is a reference and research tool with high quality business and consumer information of interest to students, job seekers and researchers. Millions of people have come to rely on these two resources to provide the most accurate, relevant information they need.
With this new agreement, the Summon™ service will include results from World Book and ReferenceUSA to provide indispensable background information researchers need when developing a baseline understanding of a new topic.
“The amount of information available online continues to grow exponentially, and many subjects are becoming more complex. That’s why it is important for a trusted source such as World Book to work with services like Summon,” said Sean Klunder, vice president of marketing and digital development at World Book, Inc. “For decades, students and researchers alike have relied on our reference information to help gain fundamental background knowledge and to comprehend new subjects of interest. These users depend on the comprehensive and clear reference information that we provide. Users will be delighted to have our credible content indexed and easily accessible in the Summon service.”
ReferenceUSA includes a vast database of information for more than 14 million U.S. businesses and 200 million U.S. households, including 675,000 U.S. doctors and 180,000 dentists. With the inclusion of ReferenceUSA, Serials Solutions is able to help users discover yet another reliable and sought-after source of information.
“ReferenceUSA’s quality information provides researchers with the insight and knowledge they need to answer a wide variety of questions as they conduct their competitive analysis, market research and planning,” said Infogroup’s Chief Product Officer Gemma Postlethwaite. “Individuals around the world have come to trust us as a source of verified U.S. business background information. We could not be more pleased to have our content indexed and so easily discovered in the Summon service.”
A cornerstone of the Summon™ service is its comprehensive, unified index, which makes the full breadth of a library’s collection and resources easily discoverable. With more than 750 million records from more than 7,000 providers in its de-duplicated index, the Summon™ service applies relevancy across the full body of a library’s collection and quickly returns a single set of relevant results to a user.
“The Summon service continues to resonate with libraries around the world because of Serials Solutions’ dedication to offering a comprehensive, unified discovery tool,” explained Mike Buschman, director of product management for the Summon™ service at Serials Solutions. “With the addition of World Book and ReferenceUSA, two globally trusted and reliable sources of in-demand information, we continue on our mission to make the discovery of that invaluable information easy, intuitive and beneficial for both library users and library staff.”
The number of libraries subscribing to the Summon™ service worldwide currently exceeds 250 libraries, many of whom are seeing a significant increase in the use of their library’s collections. Since it is offered as a Software as a Service (SaaS), Serials Solutions continues to enhance and improve the features and functionality of the Summon™ service in real-time to ensure users receive relevant results with unprecedented speed.
About World Book, Inc.
Since 1917, World Book, Inc., has set the standard for providing accuracy, objectivity, and reliability in research materials for both children and adults. Based in Chicago, Illinois, World Book is an industry leader in the production of award-winning encyclopedias, reference sources, and digital products for the home and schools.
For almost 90 years, World Book has been committed to publishing encyclopedias and other reference products that meet the highest standards of editorial excellence while keeping pace with the technological developments that define the computer age.
World Book, Inc. sets the standard in publishing accurate, current, and reliable reference and learning materials for children and adults. Based in Chicago, World Book is committed to creating educational products that meet the highest standards of editorial excellence in print and online. This commitment has resulted in a wide range of products including the number-one selling The World Book Encyclopedia; the World Book Web, which is the most comprehensive and authoritative online solution to meet the diverse information needs of students, educators, public library patrons, and families; and World Book Classroom, innovative and effective teaching resources to improve learning in the classroom setting. World Book (www.worldbook.com) is a Scott Fetzer company, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.
About Infogroup
Infogroup helps companies increase sales and customer loyalty through our high value data, market intelligence and innovative digital solutions. We uncover and unlock revenue growth by enabling our clients – from local businesses to Fortune 100 companies – to connect and engage with their most valuable audiences millions of times each day. Infogroup data powers the top 5 internet search engines and 90% of the GPS systems in North America. Infogroup is also the exclusive provider of the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. For more information, please visit www.infogroup.com.
About Serials Solutions
Serials Solutions® is the global leader in essential discovery and e-resource management solutions which are powered by a comprehensive knowledgebase. Its popular suite of Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions helps improve access to and use of collections, eases librarian workloads, and ultimately reduces operating costs. Solutions include: the world-class Summon™ web-scale discovery service, providing instant access to the full breadth of the library’s collection through a single search; the AquaBrowser® discovery layer, making navigation more accessible; 360, the only integrated e-resource access and management solution; KnowledgeWorks, the authoritative e-resource knowledgebase and foundation for Serials Solutions 360; and Ulrich’s™, the world’s most authoritative source of bibliographic and publisher information for serials and the most comprehensive source of print and electronic serials data available. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Serials Solutions is a member of the ProQuest® family of companies.