“DISCOVERING” SUMMON
BRAINSTORMING SESSION
JANUARY 26, 2017
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A DISCOVERY LAYER?
Beginning discovery, exploration, and access
An aid to research, especially novices, to remove barriers btw. Seekers → content
Help beginning researchers to get started on research
Help students “discover” relevant databases
Helps students see what we have access to
Help students get a broad sense of what’s there
Comprehensive gateway
Gateway to an ungrouped large amount of info
Comprehensive Discovery
Provide access (“one-stop”) to resources across our collections [no silos]
Common Interface Across resources
Efficient search and refinement
Use for both large or focused searches
Efficient searching for all (novice and advanced) searchers
Teach students + faculty the value of refining
Bonus access
Unexpected Discovery
Could help students add dimension to their research
Increased use of underutilized (but quality) resources
Familiar
Aligning library services w/ “real world” search styles
WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT SUMMON?
Easy to like
Stable, reliable
Easy to explain in class
Students seem to like/use it.
Easy, intuitive one-stop access to content, full-text
“Start w/ Summon” -- point people there w/o them having to make a choice
Easy first pass access
Intuitive searching
“One-stop” feature
Not limited to a specific database
One-search from main library page
Easy access to our catalog + f.t. Content
Help get full-text
Refinement
Advanced search interface
When it works well with refinements
Facets for narrowing search (useful, variety, approp.)
Facets
Stuff librarians like
Add results outside of library is an option but not a default
Librarians can see where things come from so we can pass that to students when consulting
Stacked entries. One entry for all formats.
De-duping. (Could be improved.)
WHEN DOES IT FAIL US?
Linking, sad
Not clear whether Summon fails us or we fail it. Biggest has been reliability of links and lack of awareness about content.
Unreliable links (links won’t work then work if you click them again; does not direct to full text)
Bad links
Permalinks, sad.
Link fails or goes to an imprecise location
Consistent access to target databases
Some databases don’t play well w/ Summon (Gale General One File, EBSCOhost)
Doesn’t play well with EBSCO
Doesn’t seem to pull from all the resources we have selected
Need more customized targets (e.g. CNY collections)
Recommended databases
Doesn’t display good recommended databases
Featured databases aren’t always the best options
Content/search results
Sometimes too many ref. Sources.
I never have great success w/ known item searches
“Imperfect” sync w/ catalog
Tagging and refinement
I think the subject tagging (product of match/merge) could be better, more helpful
Doesn’t always refine with desired results
Duplication
Multiple hits of same item
Duplications where one entry says we have full text + the other says we don’t
Bad metadata
Metadata is just wrong. I.e. to the wrong year.
Dubious citation output
Citations are wrong. Again bad metadata?
Marketing and promotion
No one knows what “Summon” means until told
Some faculty don’t like it.
Miscellaneous, general and specific
Slow, non-responsive
Don’t like the collapsing columns
WHAT FEATURES/IMPROVEMENTS WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IN SUMMON THAT ARE NOT CURRENTLY OFFERED?
Policy
I am wondering about a content policy that aims toward reducing “junk” in favor of quality
More transparency on impact of admin options
A different model for including catalog records
IR & SC & Gallery content?
Better integration w/ libguides, refworks, utilization of best bets
New features
Separate book & e-book filters
Patron account as in MyEBSCOhost
Suggested search terms
Subject profiles
Better identification of items visual
The databases listed (where the citations come from)
If full text doesn’t work have a message saying search for journal title in journals
Improvements to Existing Features
Better interaction with EBSCO
Better job at recommended DBs
Recommended databases
Reliable links
Precise linking to content
Less duplication
L. Bush, D. Fuller, G. Golderman, P. Koonz, C. Seymour