Dartmouth College Library Launches Open Beta for the Summon™ Service
Dartmouth College Library marks a worldwide milestone with the launch of an open beta of the Summon™ web-scale discovery service, a groundbreaking, Google-like search of the full breadth of content found in library collections. In addition to librarians, the Summon™ service is now being used by students and faculty at Dartmouth College, enabling them to search the contents of the library – physical and digital – from a single search box. The Summon™ service has been developed by Serials Solutions, a business unit of ProQuest.
“We’ve been eagerly awaiting the day when we could introduce our students and faculty to this single, convenient, compelling, high-yielding discovery system for our scholarly articles, newspaper entries, books, and the metadata that leads to the rest of our holdings,” said David Seaman, the college’s Associate Librarian for Information Management. “To be the world’s first is exciting, but for us, the real excitement is in dramatically improving the service to our users. The Summon service empowers our users, enabling them to explore the vastness of our collection and find exactly what they’re looking for,” added Cyndy Pawlek, Deputy Librarian of the College.
Another milestone awaits Serials Solutions next month when the Summon™ service launches commercially. To prepare, it’s adding a variety of new content providers, including more than 20 society publishers hosted on American Institute of Physics’ Scitation® platform. The service now includes nearly 100 contributors, including key partners ProQuest and Gale – aggregators representing more than 4,700 publishers. Serials Solutions harvests and indexes their content, enabling fast, relevancy-ranked search results. New content providers are consistently being added to the Summon service in order to expand the breadth of content discoverable via the library.
“We are very pleased to be involved at this early stage of Serial Solutions’ new beta product,” said Terry Hulbert, Director of Business Development at the American Institute of Physics. “Discoverability forms a key part of our various strategies and collaborating in this way with their new Summon service provides an opportunity for library users to search highly targeted and relevant resources through a single interface. AIP and its Scitation® partners consider it critical that users of any product or service are able to discover the high value content that they publish.”
The goal of the Summon™ service is to bring the user back to the library as the starting place for research, and provide for greater return on the library’s content investment. In addition to Dartmouth College Library, leading institutions serving as beta sites for the Summon™ service include Oklahoma State University, University of Calgary, University of Sydney, Claremont Colleges Library, University of Liverpool, and Western Michigan University.
The Summon™ web-scale discovery service is hosted and built with an open API that will allow it to be used with existing library Web sites, next-generation catalogs or campus systems with low impact on staff.
About Serials Solutions
Founded by a librarian for librarians in 2000, 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 recently introduced the Summon™ unified discovery service, a revolutionary discovery tool that provides instant access to the full breadth of the library’s collection through a single search.
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.
Serials Solutions is a division of ProQuest LLC.
About ProQuest LLC
ProQuest creates specialized information resources and technologies that propel successful research and lifelong learning. A global leader in serving libraries of all types, ProQuest offers the culmination of experience from many respected brands, including CSA™, UMI®, Chadwyck-Healey™, SIRS®, and eLibrary®. With Serials Solutions®, Ulrich’s™, RefWorks®, COS™, and Dialog® brands now in the ProQuest family, the company continues to build on its legacy of responsive people in partnership with librarians.
ProQuest consistently seeks new ways to support researchers and quality research. More than a content provider or aggregator, ProQuest is an information partner, creating indispensable research solutions that connect people and information. Through innovative, user-centered technology, ProQuest offers a depth and breadth of global content that includes historical newspapers, dissertations, and uniquely relevant resources for researchers of any age and sophistication—including content not likely to be digitized by others. Inspired by its customers and end users, ProQuest is working toward a future that blends information accessibility with community to further enhance learning and encourage lifelong enrichment. For more information, visit www.proquest.com or the ProQuest parent company website, www.cambridgeinformationgroup.com.