Summon Holy Grail or leaky cup? The Holy Grail Improve the research experience Simplicity (or, hidden complexity) Complete integration of print and electronic.

Summon

Holy Grail or leaky cup?

The Holy Grail

• Improve the research experience• Simplicity (or, hidden complexity)

• Complete integration of print and electronic

• Easy to learn ( + instruct!)

• Easy access to article-level resources

• Easy to authenticate

• Remove barriers between libraries & users

• Compete more effectively with Google• Promote the use of quality-assured information

• “Returning the researcher to the library” (Library Journal webcasts)

• Meet expectations / stay relevant

• Return on investment

An unholy mess?

• Library Catalogue

• Federated search

• Vertical search

• A&I, FT

Summon – what is it?

• Web-scale discovery (unified discovery)• Google-like (speed, convenience, practices & presentation)• Sounds like WorldCat but…• Looks like vertical search but…• Single search box access to full breadth of collection• Centralised index of pre-harvested content• Built with entirely new technology • Based on extensive end-user studies• Developed with libraries and content providers• Promises to be a great leap forward

• Simple idea

• Google model

• What took so long?

Summon – who’s involved?

• Serials Solutions• Head start (content & functionality):

• Discovery & management services • KnowledgeWorks, 360, Ulrich’s, RefWorks, COS, AquaBrowser, WebFeat

• ProQuest • CSA, UMI, Chadwyck-Healey, Dialog, SIRS, eLibrary

• Experience hosting systems• Relationships with content providers

• Development team & process • Team – Microsoft, IEEE, VuFind, Google, MediaLab

• Agile development• Speed & quality

• began development Autumn 2008 - launched worldwide beta testing in January• Liverpool: baby steps to beta in 8 weeks > open beta within 8 weeks > live service?

• Responsiveness to feedback• Weekly updates

Summon – how does it work?

Summon – how does it work?

• The Unified Search Index• Pre-indexes everything

• local data taken into Summon index

• methods: FTP, OAI, USB, etc.

• formats: XML (EAD), HTML, PDF, delimited ASCII, MARC, etc.

• importance of good data

• Data normalised to Summon schema• Relevance ranking of books and articles together

• Search architecture• Apache Solr

• Powerful extension of Lucene

• Advanced full-text search capabilities

• Optimised for high volume web traffic

• Standards based open interfaces

• Scalability – other search servers

• Flexible and adaptable

• Extensible plugin architecture

• Support for dynamic faceted browsing and filtering

Summon – how does it work?

• Ingesting local content• e-Resources entitlements

• Client centre / SFX holdings export

• Bibliographic data• FTP > MARCXML > mapped to Summon schema

• local Summon server - daily update feed

• check item status – API

• Archival data – M2M services (SRU, Z39.50, OAI-PMH)• Institutional Repository – OAI-PMH

• Interface – Ajax, css

• Authentication – in front / behind?• barrier to searching…90% drop-off in use• …but Terms & Conditions

• A&I providers

• Summon

Summon – how does it work?

• “The mega-index of content”• half a billion records• 6,000+ publishers• 50,000 + journal titles

• http://www.serialssolutions.com/assets/publications/Summon-represented-titles.pdf

• scores of scholarly publishers and university presses• launched in January with ProQuest, Gale, Springer, Taylor & Francis and SAGE

• LexisNexis, Publishing Technology (IngentaConnect), ThomsonReuters (Web of Science), ABC-CLIO, IEEE, Emerald, Scitation, The Royal Society

• ...and growing by the week• MLA International Bibliography, Ingram Digital (MyiLibrary), PsycArticles and

PsycCritiques, M.E. Sharpe, Knovel, IBIS, RMIT, Hart, Allen & Unwin

• Create a movement of publishers and aggregators• Critical mass

• Discovery or obscurity?

Quick & simple

Quick & simple

0 – 4.3 million in 2 seconds!

Advanced search

Results display

Results display - articles

Results display - booksItem status check - incl.multiple copies

Results display - archives

Refining results

• Full-text filter• Scholarship filter• “Mega-index”

Refining results

Extent of collections at a glance

Refining results – more options

Refining results – more facets

Saving & exporting

Saving & exporting

Saving & exporting

Saving & exporting

Other features

• Times cited• Other significant resources• Web of Science – others?• usage-based recommendations / bX Recommender?

• “Did you mean?” suggestions• British vs. American spelling differences

• Mobile app (for iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Palm or Windows Mobile)• Auto download• Full-text

• Open API• pre-selected search targets in departmental web pages• course management software modules

In summation

• Feedback• Usage stats? • Summon & informal mechanisms• University – unanimous approval• Library staff – curbing enthusiasm

• Performance• Speed & simplicity - vast improvement• Consistent results, clearly displayed• Relevant results

• Book rankings / newspaper noise

• Simple, obvious starting point

• Still value native interfaces...for how long?• Content, tailored indexes• Summon has the superior search engine – more thorough?

• De-duplication

• Powerful results management

In summation

• Coverage• Breadth and depth but...

• Effectively represent academic libraries in UK?• US site:

• 99% of top 100 downloaded titles• 100% of top 50 JSTOR titles • 100% of their top 50 titles from OCLC databases

• Law, Science Direct (Ingenta metadata?), EBSCO

• Much more useful than federated search

• Content is critical• ...or what happens about unharvestable content

• Will federated search ever go away?

• Coverage • Greater transparency of what’s being searched

• how do I know what’s there, from where?

In summation

• Access to full-text• Summon / SFX interoperability

• Cannot use date to resolve (but ArticleLinker does)• Newspaper articles

• SFX cannot link into CSA• STM workaround - Scopus and Pubmed• Arts and Social Sciences?

• Two-character first names (eg. Chinese name Li)• SFX inserts full stops > searches for L.I. > search fails!

• Dead ends - dissertations and patents• Neither SFX nor ArticleLinker seems to work – where next?

• Access to native interfaces• Subject access still required?• Summon ‘Recommender’?

• which resources the most / best results come from

• link to native interfaces

In summation

• Alternatives - none available but...• EBSCO Discovery Service (by end of 2009?)

• Unified + federated search

• Scaled-up version of their existing search engine

• Demo? / facets?

• “7 times as many 3rd party content partners as any other discovery service”

• subscription agent - established relationships with publishers

• aggregated full-text database products are larger than ProQuest’s

• less embargoed content

• Ex Libris – Primo Central• Unified + federated search

• Content providers?

• Deep Web Technologies (fed & unified)

• Battle for supremacy

http://liv.summon.serialssolutions.com