Serials Solutions® Announces Development of New Web-Scale Management Solution to Improve the Efficiency of Library Operations
The new Serials Solutions® service will address the industry’s fundamental shift to electronic content, while still supporting librarians' needs to manage their print and local collections. To do this, Serials Solutions will develop a solution that enables the cohesive management of a libraries’ collection, including the ability to select, purchase, catalog, circulate, compare, manage, fulfill, assess and report on their content, regardless of format. The service will also tightly integrate into the discovery process, working with the Summon™ service as well as other discovery solutions, creating an integrated, end-to-end solution.
"We have a longstanding commitment to develop the most comprehensive services available to help libraries and librarians achieve their mission," said Michael Gersch, senior vice president and general manager for Serials Solutions. "Based on our extensive research, our history of innovation and our experience with electronic resources, we want to bring today's library systems and workflows in line with today's market needs."
With this new offering, Serials Solutions will unite the many disparate systems librarians currently use to manage their resources and provide a powerful platform from which they can assess and report on their collections. This assessment is necessary for decision making, performance evaluation and efficient data sharing. The new service will streamline workflows and communication in the library, freeing librarians from the redundancy of data entry and other low-value activity so they can focus on mission-critical work, such as collection management, advancing information literacy among their patrons or helping individual researchers.
"Today’s tools have forced librarians to create too many redundant processes to manage the entirety of their collection," said Vickie Kline, Systems Librarian and Associate Professor at York College of Pennsylvania. "Serials Solutions’ approach to managing library resources provides needed relief by helping librarians to integrate these same processes, which will allow them to focus on fulfilling the library’s mission to its patrons."
In addition, Serials Solutions will leverage its expertise in Software as a Service (SaaS) methodology to develop this new service, providing greater cost savings by simplifying hardware and software maintenance, and delivering service enhancements to library customers automatically and in real-time. The solution will also seamlessly integrate with systems from publishers and content providers, creating a comprehensive experience for libraries that restructures the management workflow from acquisition and collection development to streamlining budgets and catalog maintenance.
"As one of the leading providers of digital and physical content, we are committed to providing and supporting ongoing innovations that simplify and create a comprehensive workflow for libraries," said George Coe, president of library and education for Baker & Taylor. "We are excited about Serials Solutions’ plans to develop this service and the impact it will have on the industry, as we believe it will help to provide valuable synergies in libraries’ selection and acquisition process."
As a member of the ProQuest® family of companies, Serials Solutions provides new and useful solutions that address the critical needs of librarians while creating a richer experience for library users. This new web-scale management solution is the latest innovation led by Serials Solutions, and further validates the company's unwavering promise to the library community to provide a complete suite of products designed to support the entire continuum of library services. Serials Solutions will begin releasing components of this new service by the end of 2012 on an annual subscription basis, and will release enhancements to the service as they become available throughout 2013 and beyond.
About ProQuest (www.proquest.com)
ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information. Key to serious research, the company has forged a 70-year reputation as a gateway to the world's knowledge — from dissertations to governmental and cultural archives to news, in all its forms. Its role is essential to libraries and other organizations whose missions depend on the delivery of complete, trustworthy information.
ProQuest's massive information pool is accessible through the all-new ProQuest® platform, which moves beyond navigation to empower researchers to use, create, and share content—accelerating research productivity.
This energetic, fast-growing organization includes the Summon™ web-scale discovery service, the new ProQuest Dialog™ service, and business units ebrary®, Serials Solutions®, RefWorks-COS™, and Bowker®.