Serials Solutions® Announces Completion of Beta Testing of the New 360 Search

Serials Solutions, a business unit of ProQuest, has announced the completion of beta testing for the new 360 Search federated search service. The new service, which will be released in mid-December, combines the best features of the Serials Solutions 360 Search and WebFeat platforms with new and improved capabilities.

“We’re excited to take these two strong, proven solutions and to bring them together into one even stronger market-leading product. It’s been exciting to work with our beta partners as they previewed the upcoming release, the culmination of months of work by some of the best developers in the federated search industry,” says Stephen DiStasio, Senior Product Manager at Serials Solutions. “ Based on feedback and the reaction from our beta partners, we anticipate that many WebFeat clients will want to move to the new 360 Search shortly after it is released.”

Thirteen beta partners selected from current 360 Search and WebFeat clients have been asked to validate new features and functionality, including testing of the new administrative console and verifying improved consortium support.

Beta partners for the new 360 Search service include:

• The Seattle Public Library
• Rice University
• The University of New Mexico
• The University of Edinburgh on behalf of the Scottish Digital Library Consortium
• Louisiana State University and Louisiana State University-Shreveport, on behalf of the LOUIS Consortium
• GALILEO—an initiative of the University System of Georgia

With this release, 360 Search clients will enjoy a streamlined administration console and the ability to share branding and resources between multiple libraries. New to WebFeat clients will be the popular 360 Search user interface, designed to meet the workflow needs of federated search patrons, and access to the Serials Solutions Client Center, the central location for administration of all Serials Solutions 360 services and access-point for the Serials Solutions Support Center and User Community. Also as a result of this release, 360 Search will connect to more resources than ever before and support twenty languages, while giving users the ability to change the language of the interface on-the-fly.

The new 360 Search service will become commercially available in December 2009.

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™ web-scale discovery service, a revolutionary 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 Ulrichsweb.com™ and Ulrich’s Serials Analysis System™ worldwide, and represents the AquaBrowser® Discovery Layer in the academic market in North America and Australia. The WebFeat® federated search service is also part of 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 business unit of ProQuest LLC.

About ProQuest

ProQuest creates specialized information resources and technologies that propel successful research, discovery, and lifelong learning.  A global leader in serving libraries of all types, ProQuest offers the expertise of such respected brands as CSA™, UMI®, Chadwyck-Healey™, SIRS®, and eLibrary®. With Serials Solutions®, Ulrich’s™, RefWorks®, COS™, Dialog®, and now Bowker® part of the ProQuest brand family, the company supports the breadth of the information community with innovative discovery solutions that power the business of books and the best in research experience. 

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 discovery technology, ProQuest offers billions of pages 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 their 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 http://www.proquest.com or the ProQuest parent company website, http://www.cambridgeinformationgroup.com.