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