Grand Valley Libraries first to provide Web searching tool

ALLENDALE, Mich. -- Students and faculty at Grand Valley State University are enjoying the first commercial adoption worldwide of a new Web discovery service, which was introduced at the American Library Association’s annual conference in Chicago.

The new service, known as Summon, simplifies the task of searching the university libraries’ more than 250 databases by using a single, simple point of entry. The confusion surrounding many database search options is replaced with a single search box to access Grand Valley’s entire collection of books, newspaper and journal articles, scholarship holdings and archival collections.

Summon is a service of Serial Solutions, a global leader in e-resource access and management that serves more than 2,000 libraries of all sizes and types. Ron Berry, Grand Valley Libraries’ director of technology and information resources, pushed hard to implement the service in time for the fall semester. Being first was an unexpected bonus.

“This service mimics the Web browsing experience that students are already familiar with on popular search engines,” said Berry. “It is more in touch with the way people search and takes away the confusion.”

By placing the Summon search box front and center on the library’s home page, www.gvsu.edu/library , Berry hopes to direct students to this powerful new tool before they try searching individual databases. “It will save them a lot of time as well as frustration,” he said.
For more information, contact Ron Berry at (616) 331-3252.
 
About Grand Valley State University
Grand Valley State University is the comprehensive regional university for Michigan's second largest metropolitan area and offers 77 undergraduate and 28 graduate degree programs. It has campuses in Allendale, Grand Rapids, and Holland and centers in Muskegon and Traverse City. Grand Valley attracts more than 23,000 students with high quality programs and state-of-the-art facilities.