Serials Solutions to Enable Full-Text Search of the HathiTrust Collection

Serials Solutions to Enable Full-Text Searc of the HathiTrust Collection

Serials Solutions, a Seattle-based company that helps libraries manage services and resources through technology, announced today that it has partnered with HathiTrust to enable full-text searching of HathiTrust’s digitized works.

“We look at this agreement as the next level (in the library search experience),” said Michael Gersch, senior VP and general manager of Serials Solutions in an interview with TechFlash. “All the books available in the library just come to life now because you can search on the full text.”

HathiTrust was founded in 2008 by a community of research libraries looking to preserve the cultural record by curating and digitizing librarycollections. The agreement will open HathiTrust’s collection – currently 8.4 million volumes – to patrons at libraries using Serials Solutions’ Summon, a web-scale search service.

“It’s further transforming the search experience by taking the search from the physical space and into the digital space,” said Gersch. He used the example of a patron looking for a particular quote – say, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” – but who couldn’t remember the author (Shakespeare). In the past, the patron would be limited by a traditional library search – author, title, keyword – but by accessing HathiTrust through Summon, they can search on the full text, he said.

Gersch sees the true value of the agreement as deepening the search experience for researchers in an academic setting. “The full text is what a lot of people want to search when doing deep research,” he said. “(Accessing HathiTrust) will really accelerate the process and allow people to do research and deep analysis in a much more efficient way."

Currently, Serials Solutions works primarily with libraries in the global academic world, though local clients include the UW, Seattle Pacific University, WSU and the Seattle library system. Those using Summon will be able to access HathiTrust’s collection by summer 2011.

Serials Solutions was created in 2000, “born from a librarian who saw the need to have solutions to help librarians deal with technology,” said Gersch. The company, which was acquired by ProQuest in 2004, created a suite of products to help libraries manage information and holdings.

18 months ago, the company launched Summon, a Saas search engine that offers a browsing experience similar to what users have become accustomed to with Bing and Google, said Gersch.

“It started making the library relevant again,” he said. Libraries can choose the information patrons can access, including that from the open web.

Gersch said he couldn’t disclose the financial impact of the deal, but said that over 200 customers use the Summon service.

For more, check out Bethany Overland's Q&A with Michael Gersch in the upcoming April 8th edition of the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Source | http://www.techflash.com/

Regardsh of the HathiTrust Collection