Discovering Discovery Systems
26th April 2016

Scott Vine explains what you should consider and look for when choosing a discovery system, common concerns and customisation queries, and relevant NISO standards. He also introduces the four main commercial discovery systems: EBSCO Discovery Service, ProQuest Summon, Primo from Ex Libris, and WorldCat Discovery Services, and the main link resolver products.

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Design Thinking - A Useful Way of Co-Creating
25th April 2016

Information professionals should take some time to consider design thinking, say Cindy Romaine and Anja Chemnitz Thygesen, as they demonstrate how it can be a powerful tool to make changes to information consumption and delivery, overcome resistance and get everyone in the conversation aligned toward the same goals.

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Mini Review of Intellixir
20th April 2016

In our review of data analysis solution Intellixir, we look at how it enables information professionals, research analysts and competitive intelligence specialists to efficiently and effectively manage and analyse the ever-increasing number of patents and scientific publications they encounter.

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Product Review of ProQuest Summon (Value - Help & Training; Competitors; Development; Pricing)
19th April 2016

Pricing, competitors, development and help & training offered are assessed by Scott Vine in the final part of his review of ProQuest's discovery service, Summon. He also asked ProQuest what their plans are for recently-acquired discovery service Primo.

Note: Full review (PDF) at /go/sub/report/2656

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Q&A with Reprints Desk - More Choices for Source Purchase & Consumption
19th April 2016

We find out about Reprints Desk's new article rental scheme and which customers are particularly keen to use it. We also ask director of marketing, Mitja-Alexander Linss, about other new developments such as in-browser article delivery and the evolution in the market towards patron-driven acquisition.

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Product Review of ProQuest Summon (Technology - Search & User Interface; Outputs & Alerts; Administration)
15th April 2016

In the third part of our review of ProQuest's Summon service, reviewer Scott Vine puts the technology through its paces, including search options, user interface and whether results are vendor-neutral or whether ProQuest content is artificially boosted in the results. He also delves into how ProQuest ensures relevance scoring remains consistent across the result set and how information centres can use features such as Best Bets to guide users to preferred sources.

Note: Full review (PDF) at /go/sub/report/2656

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Introducing Consultants to Information Research
14th April 2016

With more and more information sources designed for and available to end users, information professionals are increasingly tasked with training researchers in consulting and other companies how to use these tools. Irene Koren and Anja Chemnitz Thygesen draw on their experiences to give advice on how to structure the training, ways to approach and frame a search, and the role of experts in the information gathering process.

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Product Review of ProQuest Summon (Sources - Content & Coverage)
14th April 2016

Discovery service ProQuest Summon indexes over 3 billion items, with 450 million added in 2015 alone. In the second part of our review, Scott Vine, looks at languages included, publishers and the breakdown of types of content.

Note: Full review (PDF) at /go/sub/report/2656

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Assessing and Progressing the Maturity of Your Information Services
13th April 2016

In a recent Community session we introduced a maturity model that can help you plan the path ahead of you to improve your effectiveness. Here, we focus in on that maturity model and explain how it can help information services in your organisation to act at a more strategic level.

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Q&A with EBSCO - Discovery Systems & Future Tech
12th April 2016

Joe Tragert of EBSCO Information Services gives Jinfo an overview of the company's current products and services, how they fit into the workflow of corporate research teams, and his thoughts on discovery solutions, authentication and text analytics. He also explains the constant challenge of "value-added situational fluency" and its impact on decision-making.

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