I wish I’d known that earlier! One library’s experience with the

Summon Discovery Interface

Lydia Welhan, Technical Services Librarian, welhan-l@mssu.edu

Nancy Crabtree, Reference & Instruction Librarian, crabtree-n@mssu.edu

Presenters

Nancy Crabtree•At MSSU since January 2003•Reference Librarian•Instruction Coordinator•Webpage Administrator

Lydia Welhan•At MSSU since 2009•Technical Services Librarian •Site Coordinator

Student Profile

Source: Missouri Southern State University College Portrait

http://www.collegeportraits.org/MO/MSSU/characteristics

Why Summon?“When comparing libraries to search engines, overwhelmingly, Americans consider search engines to be more convenient, faster, more reliable and easier-to-use.”

DeRosa, Cathy, Joanne Cantrell, Mathew Carlson, Peggy Gallagher, Janet Hawk, and Charlotte Sturtz. Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community. Rep. Dublin, OH: OCLC, 2011, p.38-39.

Technical Services & Cataloging

o Set-up of Summon

o Maintaining holdings

o Lessons learned

Set-Up: Mapping Tables

Set-Up: Mapping Tables

• Which fixed-field elements indicate format?

MATTYPE = 907$e

Set-Up: Full Load

Maintaining Holdings

• Updates• Deletes

Maintaining Holdings

• Updates– In your scope– Not suppressed– Updated since last script ran

(runs every day)

Maintaining Holdings

• Deletes– Unscoped location code– May be suppressed or unsuppressed– Updated since last script ran

(runs Mondays and Thursdays)

Maintaining Holdings

• Code as un-scoped/suppressed

• Record bib record #

• Check list against delete file

• 1 week later, delete from Millenium

Data Exchange mode:

Maintaining Holdings

Once you delete a record in Milleniumyou cannot delete it from Summon

Maintaining Holdings

Maintaining Holdings

Maintaining Holdings

Submit a new full load as often you want

•Same process as during set-up•Process can take up to a month•Only way to remove a deleted record from Summon

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

1. Don’t submit all your bib records

Lessons Learned

1. Don’t submit all your bib records2. Inform all catalogers in your cluster

Lessons Learned

1. Don’t submit all your bib records2. Inform all catalogers in your cluster3. Submit your full load often

(but watch for character limits)

Lessons Learned

1. Don’t submit all your bib records2. Inform all catalogers in your cluster3. Submit your full load often

(but watch for character limits)

4. Don’t host the scripts yourself(unless you have staff who know Perl)

Customization

www.mssu.edu/library

Marketing & Training

Faculty Study Conference

Library Staff Training

Training

vs1. Only see items in your collection

• Your own library’s citations• Catalog• LibGuides• Local repositories (if added)

2. Provider citations for which you subscribe to full text• Flagged as: Available Online

1 & 2 on left PLUS

3.Provider citations for which you do not have full text

• Flagged as: Citation Online

*Never see citations from other libraries’ catalogs or private, institutional A&I databases.

Instruction Discoveries

“I dislike that you have to click a box to build off of your last search. I don’t know why but I figured that would be the default”

Summon @ MSSU Survey, April 2012

“Summon would not always work on certain browsers and some of the articles I would try to pull up would not always work”

Summon @ MSSU Survey, April 2012

Instruction Discoveries“Even when narrowing searches, information received can still be difficult to locate in many instances and in a very broad amount”

Summon @ MSSU Survey, April 2012

http://mssu.summon.serialssolutions.com/widgets

Most Important DiscoveryMost students like using Summon!

•Fast, easy•This tool is an extremely beneficial search engine which is relatively easy to learn and navigate•Amount of databases I can search at once•Easy to find on MSSU website•Ability to click on so many filters cuts finding resources time in half•I like that the school provides it•The folder to save articles and email bibliography•I can search all types of materials in one location

Summon @ MSSU Survey, April 2012

Questions, Comments, Discussion