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