Serials Solutions, a ProQuest business, has announced a new catalogue display functionality, as well as support for consortia catalogues in the Summon discovery service.
The new catalogue detail page improves display of items from both local and consortia catalogues indexed in the Summon service. Optimised to include enrichment content from Syndetic Solutions such as book covers and table of contents and LibraryThing ratings and reviews, the catalogue detail page was designed to entice the user to access the content. Libraries will now have the option to customise Summon records for catalogue items to include additional enrichment content, custom text and intuitive linking options for placing holds, interlibrary loan requests and accessing e-books.
The new catalogue detail page also represents the first step in providing functionality for libraries considering replacing their current OPAC with the Summon service. The open architecture of the Summon service, and the virtually unlimited customisation options for the catalog detail page, create the optimal front-end discovery tool for any library services platform or web-scale management service, including Serials Solutions Intota.
Unique to the Summon service, the new indexing capabilities for union catalogues and disparate catalogues enable researchers to easily scope searches using facets to a particular library or group of libraries pre- or post-search.
Unlike most existing union catalogues, Summon service users can easily scope searches to display catalogue holdings from specific libraries within their consortia. This also facilitates convenient access to items available through shared borrowing arrangements. For institutions without a formal union catalogue, this new functionality enables users to discover content with the flexibility to select combinations of collections tailored to deliver the most relevant search results.
New administrative tools provide a more efficient way and new options for customising how local catalogue records are mapped to match the library’s specifications in the Summon service – and optimised for display of the record. This added functionality will also enable librarians to easily see the mapping, evaluate how it’s working and make better modification decisions.
The new features will be demonstrated at the American Library Association annual conference in Anaheim, CA, and new research conducted on the use of the Summon discovery services by the University of Huddersfield and Grand Valley State University will be presented.
