Our JISC project report is now available

You can now access our completed project report through the link on our ‘Project documents’ page.

The report details both institutions’ experiences of implementing Summon and includes information on the following areas:

  • The practicalities of implementation;
  • Evaluation, feedback and usability testing;
  • Marketing and training;
  • Key points for effective practice;
  • Recommendations for the future development of Summon.

We hope that it proves helpful to those considering or currently implementing the service.

New presentations and publications

We have been out and about talking about Summon in recent weeks

You can find our latest presentations here including Internet Librarian International.

Coming up in the next few months we’ll be at the UNICA seminar in Portugal and a Cataloguing and Indexing Group event in Edinburgh. Look out to for an article in SCONUL Focus too.

Summon event at Huddersfield

A big “thank you” to everyone who came along to the Summon event last week — we hope you found it useful!

We’ve pulled together the various slides and they’re now available to download:

  • One search box… Your Library Discovered
    Helle Lauridsen – Serials Solutions (PDF)
  • User evaluation and the “Simplifying
    resource discovery and access in
    academic libraries” JISC Project

    Annette Coates – Northumbria University (PDF/PPT)
  • Summon at Huddersfield
    Dave Pattern – University of Huddersfield (PDF/PPT)

Chris Keene (University of Sussex) liveblogged the event: Summon @ Huddersfield. If you’ve blogged about the event, please let us know and we’ll add a link.

If you’ve got any questions about the event, the presentations or even about Summon in general, please feel free to leave a comment!

Summon implementation at Northumbria and Huddersfield

Project aims and objectives

The key aims of this project are:

  • To report on the objectives for implementation, challenges encountered and any issues raised during the technical implementation of Summon. This will include MARC mapping from the library catalogue, population of full text resources via Serials Solutions; and harvesting metadata from local collections such as research repositories and other local and special collections.
  • After the initial “soft launch‟ of the service, detailed feedback from a representative range of users will be sought in order to refine and improve the system for a full launch in July 2010 and subsequent roll out in September 2010. Outputs from this stage will include a marketing plan and full evaluation report.
  • To update information skills training programmes to include the use of Summon; any generic training materials will be made available to the wider community via JORUM.
  • To recommend any future enhancements that the project partners feel would be necessary to improve the system.
  • Finally, lessons learned from the project outcomes will be shared with JISC and the wider community and should also help inform the direction of travel in the wider library systems environment

Implementing and evaluating Summon at Huddersfield and Northumbria Universities

A free seminar for libraries to be held at the Castle Hill Suite, University of Huddersfield, 25 May 2010

The Summon web-scale discovery service (from Serials Solutions) aims to simplify access to the breadth of the library’s resources via a simple single search box.  By harvesting and indexing metadata from publishers and local library collections it facilitates resource discovery and access to multiple library collections whether in print or electronic form.

The University of Huddersfield was the first commercial adopter of Summon in the UK, quickly followed by Northumbria University. This free event will look at the reasons behind the purchase of Summon, the technical implementation and subsequent roll out to the users.

 Programme

10.00   Refreshments

10.15   Introduction

10.25   Update from Serials Solutions

10.45   Product evaluation – Eileen Hiller, University if Huddersfield

11.10   Technical implementation and demonstration of Summon @ Huddersfield – Dave Pattern, University if Huddersfield

11.35   User evaluation and the Simplifying resource discovery and access in academic libraries JISC Project – Annette Coates, Northumbria University

12.00   Q&A session

12.30   Lunch and a chance to network

14.00   Close

The event will be held in the Castle Hill Suite on the 4th floor of the Central Services Building (building 7 on the campus map). The 4th floor is the ground floor if you come from the main entrance to the University.

The University is 15 minutes walk from the railway station, which has 4 trains per hour from Leeds and Manchester (30 minutes from each). There is a large multi storey car park opposite the University.

This free event is open to the library community only

To confirm a place, please email Graham Stone