Making Summon go (For everyone)

Abstract

One of the UIC University Library’s strategic initiatives is to "develop, improve, and unify discovery systems to meet a range of user needs". This presentation will describe the work our Discovery Services Advisory Group has performed to this end, including implementation of WorldCat Local (WCL), subsequent implementation of Summon, and an evaluation of both discovery tools, which ultimately led to Summon as our primary discovery system. Since 2015, we've conducted user studies, launched a redesigned website, and are in the process of building a bento box search tool. We will describe how we have organized specific projects to improve our discovery services and our ability to evaluate how effectively our discovery systems “meet a range of user needs” in the context of a Carnegie “R1” university. The presentation will conclude with our perspective on what libraries need from the vendor community, especially to improve end-to-end access for off-campus users.