Interesting Things Learned

Interesting Things Learnedat ALA Midwinter

1. Online Language Learning2. Joan Lippincott Presentation3. Serials Solutions Summon4. AquaBrowser & Summon

Partnership5. Time to Revisit NextGen

Catalogs?

1. Online Language LearningMango

www.mangolanguages.com12 language packages including 3 ESL’sMore languages coming (including Arabic!)Based on Pimsleur Works on Macs, PC’sClean interfaceDoesn’t compete with

campus language labs

1. Online Language Learning, cont.Tell Me More

http://www.tellmemore.com/ Fewer languages, one ESL optionPC/IE onlyMore serious study options

Recorded conversationsFeedback on pronunciationPronunciation guidesReading, writing, grammar

2. Talk by Joan Lippincott/CNI“Reaching the Net Generation”

Students believe library info = superior, the most credible,

Behavior is different, though (Google)Ithaka Report

Library increasingly disintermediated from the actual research process

Importance of library as a gateway for info is decliningReasons:

No compelling starting placeDifficulty identifying appropriate resourcesLack of resource awarenessCan’t find resource needed among hundreds offeredToo many access pointsFederated searching has problems

Just can’t compete with simple, easy, fast (Google)“Content is no longer king – convenience is”

3. Serials Solutions Summon“Unified Discovery Service”Not federated searching (content is “preloaded”)In beta with Dartmouth and OK StateSingle search box for all library content

Catalog, repository, digital library, grey literature, databases, etc.

Open API – can insert into next gen catalog interface, courseware, web site

Has an interface, but emphasis is on search engine

“No dead ends” (problems)

3. Serials Solutions Summon, contContent:

50,000 journals300+ million items (and more weekly)Gale and ProQuest are major providersSpring, Taylor & Francis, SageERIC, Medline, EconLit, moreEven if not partnering with, have

85% of EBSCO Academic Search Premier 87% OVID 64% JSTOR

PartnersCrossRef (for OpenURL resolver/DOI linking)Highwire Press (crawling & harvesting)And…

4. AquaBrowser & SummonSerials Solutions partnering very closely

with AquaBrowserAquaBrowser provides the interfaceSummon provides the integrated search

mechanismFuture acquisition of

AquaBrowser by SS?

5. Time to Revisit NextGen Catalogs?

MOBIUS task force recommended Encore, but – Task force was divided between Encore and

AquaBrowserIII’s Encore booth looked small, badly placed, lonelyEncore not moving towards “Google solution”SS Summons & AquaBrowser = powerful comboOther products to consider, of course

Endeca, Scriblio (open source), Open Library (open source), Primo (Ex Libris), Grokker, eXtensible, WorldCat Local, etc.

Economic crunch time may be best time to shop…