Full-Text Searching of ebrary titles expands in Summon® Discovery Service

November 7, 2012 (ANN ARBOR, Mich.) — ProQuest is boosting the visibility of e-books in library collections by providing for the full text of an additional 400,000 e-books to be discovered and accessed as part of a broad search of library holdings. The initiative to improve e-book visibility began in early 2011 when Serials Solutions pioneered indexing of the contents of the HathiTrust collection in its Summon® discovery service. Just months later, the first full-text indexing of ebrary’s popular collection of e-books debuted. Now, ProQuest expands that effort with virtually every title in ebrary’s collection richly indexed in the Summon service and discoverable from the “front door” of the library.

“Our 2011 Global Student E-book Survey identified discovery as an area of the e-book experience that could be substantially improved,” said Kurt Sanford, ProQuest CEO. “More than 47 percent of respondents reported that they aren’t using e-books because they don’t know where to find them. With all of ebrary’s titles indexed within Summon, researchers and faculty can now more efficiently discover them, enabling the library to earn more value from its e-book collection.”

The Summon service searches more full text than any other discovery service, exposing researchers to content in collections that might otherwise remain buried. Summon searches across all of a library’s ebrary products, encompassing titles acquired through subscription, patron driven acquisition, short-term loan, and perpetual archive models. As a result, strategic acquisition can occur within the ebrary platform but can start from the library’s point of discovery, dramatically streamlining ordering and precisely tuning the library’s holdings to users’ needs.

“ProQuest is committed to pioneering technology and business models that empower libraries to get more from their content investments and deliver the best research experience for their users,” said Mr. Sanford. “Combining the expertise across the ProQuest enterprise with deep understanding of our customers needs, we intend to continually remove obstacles between people and information, advancing knowledge around the world.”

About the Summon Service

Used by more than 500 libraries in more than 40 countries, the Summon service is the first and only discovery service based on a unified index of content, leveraging its unique “match and merge” technology to combine rich metadata and full text from multiple sources to ultimately make items more discoverable. In just three years, the Summon unified index has grown from 200 million items to more than one billion items – with the vast majority of article and book content full-text searchable. Proven to increase usage of library resources, the Summon service consistently meets user expectations by delivering innovative new features for enhancing discovery.

About ProQuest (www.proquest.com)

ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information.  Key to serious research, the company has forged a 70-year reputation as a gateway to the world’s knowledge – from dissertations to governmental and cultural archives to news, in all its forms.  Its role is essential to libraries and other organizations whose missions depend on the management and delivery of complete, trustworthy information.

ProQuest’s massive information pool is made accessible in research environments that accelerate productivity, empowering users to discover, create, and share knowledge.

An energetic, fast-growing organization, ProQuest includes the ProQuest®, Bowker®, Dialog®, ebrary®, and Serials Solutions® businesses and notable research tools such as the RefWorks® and Pivot™ services, as well as its’ Summon® web-scale discovery service.  The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices around the world.

Collaborative project will train OCR technology to read early modern fonts

November 6, 2012 (ANN ARBOR Mich.) — Information powerhouse ProQuest is participating in a project that will vastly accelerate research of 15^th through 17^th Century cultural history. The company will provide access to page images from the veritable Early English Books Online and newcomer Early European Books to the Early Modern OCR Project (eMOP) at Texas A&M. EMOP will use the content to create a database of typefaces used in the early modern era, train OCR software to read them and then apply crowd-sourcing for editing. The project will turn the rich corpus of works from this pivotal historical period into fully searchable digital documents. 

“Digitization of the historical archives of the early modern era made this literature far more accessible. Page images provide scholars with unprecedented access to books that previously could have only been viewed in their source library. However, precision search — the ability to use technology to zero in on very specific text — has been hampered by the fact that OCR technology can’t read the peculiarities of early printing,” said Mary Sauer-Games, ProQuest vice-president, publishing. “We’re thrilled to participate in an effort that we feel will drive new levels of historical discovery. We love the application of modern ingenuity to turn these very old archives into works that are as searchable as text that was born digital.”

ProQuest has played a key worldwide role in preservation and access to early modern history, ensuring the survival of printed works from as early as 1450. In the 1930s, the company became a pioneer of microfiche, when it filmed the contents of the vast archives of the British Library and other major libraries across England – virtually every English language book printed in the 15^th, 16^th and 17^th centuries. The microfilm collection, ProQuest’s flagship Early English Books, opened these works to global study and created an avenue for preservation. It has since become the quintessential collection for study of the early modern era.

In the 1990s, ProQuest began a massive effort to capture the collection digitally. Early English Books Online enables scholars to manage, share and collaborate on their research virtually. The company even created a social network that allows the scholars who use the collection as a base for their research to connect with each other.

Then, early in the 21^st century, ProQuest expanded the program to include major European libraries, launching Early European Books with the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze in Italy. Digitization projects are also underway with the U.K.’s famed scientific and medical library — The Wellcome – and the National Library of the Netherlands.

eMop is led by Texas A&M Professors Laura Mandell, Director of the Initiative for Digital Humanities, Media, and Culture (IDHMC), Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna of Computer Science, and Richard Furuta, Director of the Center for the Study of Digital Libraries (CSDL), along with  Anton DuPlessis and Todd Samuelson, book historians from Cushing Rare Books Library. The scholars earned a two-year, $734,000 development grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the work. ProQuest is one of a variety of participating publishers and software organizations that are collaborating on the project.

To learn more about eMOP visit http://emop.tamu.edu. For more information about ProQuest’s role in access to and preservation of the world’s knowledge, visit www.proquest.com.

About ProQuest (www.proquest.com)

ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information.  Key to serious research, the company has forged a 70-year reputation as a gateway to the world’s knowledge – from dissertations to governmental and cultural archives to news, in all its forms.  Its role is essential to libraries and other organizations whose missions depend on the management and delivery of complete, trustworthy information.

ProQuest’s massive information pool is made accessible in research environments that accelerate productivity, empowering users to discover, create, and share knowledge.

An energetic, fast-growing organization, ProQuest includes the ProQuest®, Bowker®, Dialog®, ebrary®, and Serials Solutions® businesses and notable research tools such as the RefWorks® and Pivot™ services, as well as its’ Summon® web-scale discovery service.  The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices around the world.

Collaborative project will train OCR technology to read early modern fonts

November 6, 2012 (ANN ARBOR Mich.) — Information powerhouse ProQuest is participating in a project that will vastly accelerate research of 15^th through 17^th Century cultural history. The company will provide access to page images from the veritable Early English Books Online and newcomer Early European Books to the Early Modern OCR Project (eMOP) at Texas A&M. EMOP will use the content to create a database of typefaces used in the early modern era, train OCR software to read them and then apply crowd-sourcing for editing. The project will turn the rich corpus of works from this pivotal historical period into fully searchable digital documents. 

“Digitization of the historical archives of the early modern era made this literature far more accessible. Page images provide scholars with unprecedented access to books that previously could have only been viewed in their source library. However, precision search — the ability to use technology to zero in on very specific text — has been hampered by the fact that OCR technology can’t read the peculiarities of early printing,” said Mary Sauer-Games, ProQuest vice-president, publishing. “We’re thrilled to participate in an effort that we feel will drive new levels of historical discovery. We love the application of modern ingenuity to turn these very old archives into works that are as searchable as text that was born digital.”

ProQuest has played a key worldwide role in preservation and access to early modern history, ensuring the survival of printed works from as early as 1450. In the 1930s, the company became a pioneer of microfiche, when it filmed the contents of the vast archives of the British Library and other major libraries across England – virtually every English language book printed in the 15^th, 16^th and 17^th centuries. The microfilm collection, ProQuest’s flagship Early English Books, opened these works to global study and created an avenue for preservation. It has since become the quintessential collection for study of the early modern era.

In the 1990s, ProQuest began a massive effort to capture the collection digitally. Early English Books Online enables scholars to manage, share and collaborate on their research virtually. The company even created a social network that allows the scholars who use the collection as a base for their research to connect with each other.

Then, early in the 21^st century, ProQuest expanded the program to include major European libraries, launching Early European Books with the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze in Italy. Digitization projects are also underway with the U.K.’s famed scientific and medical library — The Wellcome – and the National Library of the Netherlands.

eMop is led by Texas A&M Professors Laura Mandell, Director of the Initiative for Digital Humanities, Media, and Culture (IDHMC), Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna of Computer Science, and Richard Furuta, Director of the Center for the Study of Digital Libraries (CSDL), along with  Anton DuPlessis and Todd Samuelson, book historians from Cushing Rare Books Library. The scholars earned a two-year, $734,000 development grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the work. ProQuest is one of a variety of participating publishers and software organizations that are collaborating on the project.

To learn more about eMOP visit http://emop.tamu.edu. For more information about ProQuest’s role in access to and preservation of the world’s knowledge, visit www.proquest.com.

About ProQuest (www.proquest.com)

ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information.  Key to serious research, the company has forged a 70-year reputation as a gateway to the world’s knowledge – from dissertations to governmental and cultural archives to news, in all its forms.  Its role is essential to libraries and other organizations whose missions depend on the management and delivery of complete, trustworthy information.

ProQuest’s massive information pool is made accessible in research environments that accelerate productivity, empowering users to discover, create, and share knowledge.

An energetic, fast-growing organization, ProQuest includes the ProQuest®, Bowker®, Dialog®, ebrary®, and Serials Solutions® businesses and notable research tools such as the RefWorks® and Pivot™ services, as well as its’ Summon® web-scale discovery service.  The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices around the world.

Summon^® Suggestions brings together librarian expertise, community collaboration and global usage data to enhance the discovery experience

Seattle, WA – November 1, 2012 – Serials Solutions^®, a ProQuest^® business has launched Summon^® Suggestions, a suite of features designed to enrich the Summon discovery service with automated and contextual research assistance will lead users to better research outcomes. These features bring together a unique blend of librarian knowledge, community collaboration and global usage data to optimize the user experience and provide unprecedented research guidance at the point of need.

With Summon Suggestions, librarians can directly influence and improve the overall user experience through localized recommendations, automated search guidance and live reference help integrated seamlessly in the Summon discovery environment. Automated topical refinement suggestions embedded in the search results provide users with options to intelligently expand queries to improve results.

“Our true Software as a Service model enables us to offer libraries unprecedented levels of local customization and librarian engagement via easy-to-use administrative tools that don’t require complex local programming skills,” said John Law, vice president discovery services, Serials Solutions. “By leveraging Summon usage data from our global user community to improve discovery we are just now beginning to scratch the surface of possibilities for globally-informed data-driven features – previously the sole domain of open Web search engines – which will continue to deliver game-changing improvements for library discovery.”

Designed to deliver research help to users at the point of need, Summon Suggestions includes:

• The new version of Database Recommender provides libraries local control over database recommendations to ensure users are directed to resources pertinent to their research and in the context of their queries. Libraries can locally curate recommendations as well as take advantage of global “community-sourced” recommendations to guide users to valuable, targeted research resources.

• “Best Bets” are locally controlled, library-generated recommendations that expose users to resources such as research guides, specialized collections, library web pages, course reserves, search tips, help tools and more. “Best Bets” highlight important information and resources based on the context of a user’s query.

• Related Search Suggestions provide users related concepts and expanded queries that can lead to better search results. Leveraging real-time, global Summon usage data, related searches offer users scholarly and multi-lingual suggestions for query refinement. Topical suggestions for new queries, similar to what users experience in open Web search engines, are available at the time of query entry (Autocomplete) as well as embedded within search results.

• Embedded Chat and Reference Widgets allow users to receive real-time help from reference staff without leaving the Summon user interface. Libraries can seamlessly integrate and customize chat and reference widgets in the Summon environment with easy to use administration tools.

• Custom Text Editor allows libraries to locally modify text in the Summon user interface to ensure their users see textual information preferred by the library. For example, libraries can locally control and edit labels and text – including error and informational messages, facets labels and limiters – in any of the 34 interface languages and dialects available in the Summon service.

The Summon Service

Used by more than 500 libraries in more than 40 countries, the Summon service is the first and only discovery service based on a unified index of content, leveraging its unique “match and merge” technology to combine rich metadata and full text from multiple sources to ultimately make items more discoverable. In just three years, the Summon unified index has grown from 200 million items to more than one billion items – with the vast majority of article and book content full-text searchable. Proven to increase usage of library resources, the Summon service consistently meets user expectations by delivering innovative new features for enhancing discovery.

About Serials Solutions www.serialssolutions.com

Serials Solutions provides industry-leading technology solutions for libraries worldwide. The company helps libraries work better by providing innovative, practical Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions for discovery and management. Driven by a comprehensive knowledgebase and coupled with unparalleled client support services, these solutions uniquely merge

Serials Solutions, a ProQuest business, is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Summon^® Suggestions brings together librarian expertise, community collaboration and global usage data to enhance the discovery experience

 Seattle, WA – November 1, 2012 – Serials Solutions^®, a ProQuest^® business has launched Summon^® Suggestions, a suite of features designed to enrich the Summon discovery service with automated and contextual research assistance will lead users to better research outcomes. These features bring together a unique blend of librarian knowledge, community collaboration and global usage data to optimize the user experience and provide unprecedented research guidance at the point of need.

With Summon Suggestions, librarians can directly influence and improve the overall user experience through localized recommendations, automated search guidance and live reference help integrated seamlessly in the Summon discovery environment. Automated topical refinement suggestions embedded in the search results provide users with options to intelligently expand queries to improve results.

“Our true Software as a Service model enables us to offer libraries unprecedented levels of local customization and librarian engagement via easy-to-use administrative tools that don’t require complex local programming skills,” said John Law, vice president discovery services, Serials Solutions. “By leveraging Summon usage data from our global user community to improve discovery we are just now beginning to scratch the surface of possibilities for globally-informed data-driven features – previously the sole domain of open Web search engines – which will continue to deliver game-changing improvements for library discovery.”

Designed to deliver research help to users at the point of need, Summon Suggestions includes:

• The new version of Database Recommender provides libraries local control over database recommendations to ensure users are directed to resources pertinent to their research and in the context of their queries. Libraries can locally curate recommendations as well as take advantage of global “community-sourced” recommendations to guide users to valuable, targeted research resources.
• “Best Bets” are locally controlled, library-generated recommendations that expose users to resources such as research guides, specialized collections, library web pages, course reserves, search tips, help tools and more. “Best Bets” highlight important information and resources based on the context of a user’s query.
• Related Search Suggestions provide users related concepts and expanded queries that can lead to better search results. Leveraging real-time, global Summon usage data, related searches offer users scholarly and multi-lingual suggestions for query refinement. Topical suggestions for new queries, similar to what users experience in open Web search engines, are available at the time of query entry (Autocomplete) as well as embedded within search results.
• Embedded Chat and Reference Widgets allow users to receive real-time help from reference staff without leaving the Summon user interface. Libraries can seamlessly integrate and customize chat and reference widgets in the Summon environment with easy to use administration tools.
• Custom Text Editor allows libraries to locally modify text in the Summon user interface to ensure their users see textual information preferred by the library. For example, libraries can locally control and edit labels and text – including error and informational messages, facets labels and limiters – in any of the 34 interface languages and dialects available in the Summon service.

The Summon Service

Used by more than 500 libraries in more than 40 countries, the Summon service is the first and only discovery service based on a unified index of content, leveraging its unique “match and merge” technology to combine rich metadata and full text from multiple sources to ultimately make items more discoverable. In just three years, the Summon unified index has grown from 200 million items to more than one billion items – with the vast majority of article and book content full-text searchable. Proven to increase usage of library resources, the Summon service consistently meets user expectations by delivering innovative new features for enhancing discovery.

About Serials Solutions www.serialssolutions.com

Serials Solutionsprovides industry-leading technology solutions for libraries worldwide. The company helps libraries work better by providing innovative, practical Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions for discovery and management. Driven by a comprehensive knowledgebase and coupled with unparalleled client support services, these solutions uniquely merge

Serials Solutions, a ProQuest business, is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Mutual customers will have access to article abstracts from 5,800 journals

Seattle, WA – October 29, 2012 – Serials Solutions^®, a ProQuest^® business and the Japan Medical Abstracts Society (JAMAS) have dramatically improved access to Japanese-language article abstracts in Ichushi-Web through the Summon^® web-scale discovery service. The inclusion of metadata from the JAMAS abstracting and indexing database for more than 5,800 journals covering medicine, dentistry and pharmacy subjects will be available to mutual subscribers of each company’s service.

Researchers will be able to discover a vast collection of Japanese-language materials in physiology, biochemistry, clinical medicine, nursing and social medical fields – alongside their library’s other resources. The expansion of content in the Summon unified index is very valuable for medical libraries. Users benefit from an interface available in more than 32 languages and dialects, advanced native language searching capabilities and language-tuned relevancy for 17 languages.

“The breadth of medical topics in Ichushi-Web supports our mission of providing comprehensive coverage of Japanese-language materials,” said John Law, vice president discovery services, Serials Solutions. “Researchers searching for this authoritative Japanese-language content will value our advanced features which make the discovery experience easier, while delivering more relevant results.”

The Summon Service

Used by more than 500 libraries in more than 40 countries, the Summon service is the first and only discovery service based on a unified index of content, leveraging its unique “match and merge” technology to combine rich metadata and full text from multiple sources to ultimately make items more discoverable. In just three years, the Summon unified index has grown from 200 million items to more than one billion items – with the vast majority of article and book content full-text searchable. Proven to increase usage of library resources, the Summon service consistently meets user expectations by delivering innovative new features for enhancing discovery.

About Serials Solutions www.serialssolutions.com

Serials Solutions provides industry-leading technology solutions for libraries worldwide. The company helps libraries work better by providing innovative, practical Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions for discovery and management. Driven by a comprehensive knowledgebase and coupled with unparalleled client support services, these solutions uniquely merge unsurpassed understanding of libraries. Serials Solutions is a dedicated partner of libraries working to remain vital and relevant to their users and communities.

Serials Solutions, a ProQuest business, is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Accomplished sales executive brings content and technology expertise to SaaS business for academic libraries

Seattle, WA – October 22, 2012 – Serials Solutions^®, a ProQuest^® business, announced Kevin Stehr as the new Vice President of Global Sales. In this role, Stehr will drive business growth through customer acquisition, retention and overall client satisfaction. Stehr will develop strategic operations plans and sales strategies to enhance customer experience and ensure a customer-centric approach to business.

“Kevin’s progressive career path includes strategic leadership, business analysis and customer relationship management,” said Michael Gersch, senior vice president and general manager of Serials Solutions. “His track record of high performance, cross-functional collaboration and talent development will contribute to our growth strategy – and we are delighted he is joining our team at such an exciting time for the company.”

“Serials Solutions’ market leadership and reputation for exceptional products and superior customer service are just a few of the reasons I’m attracted to this opportunity,” said Mr. Stehr. “I’m looking forward to developing a strategy that will leverage the company’s heritage and new solutions like Intota.”

Prior to joining Serials Solutions, Stehr held various senior sales and strategy positions for LexisNexis.  Most recently he was Vice President of Sales for LexisNexis Litigation Software, Hosting & Professional Services, where he repeatedly drove double digit growth and was responsible for technology and services supporting improved client workflow across multiple markets. Prior to assuming this role, Stehr was responsible for research content sales, as well as multiple leadership roles in the organization including Vice President of Strategic Planning, where he managed the company’s strategic direction, which focused on meeting the needs of its customers in the evolving practice of litigation. Stehr was recognized with the CEO Senior Leadership Excellence Award, Circle of Excellence award and was behind two patents for innovations that have generated $26 million in revenue.

Prior to joining LexisNexis, Stehr was a senior trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Defense, as well as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Washington. His work focused on litigation with an emphasis on representing the interests of the federal government in administrative, as well as federal court proceedings.

Stehr holds a BA in Political Science from University of Kansas, a JD from University of Missouri and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

About Serials Solutions

Serials Solutions provides industry-leading technology solutions for libraries worldwide. The company helps libraries work better by providing innovative, practical Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions for discovery and management. Driven by a comprehensive knowledgebase and coupled with unparalleled client support services, these solutions uniquely merge unsurpassed understanding of libraries. Serials Solutions is a dedicated partner of libraries working to remain vital and relevant to their users and communities.

Serials Solutions, a ProQuest business, is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

www.serialssolutions.com

Working Papers available in ABI/INFORM, ProQuest Central and more will triple within three years

October 17, 2012 (ANN ARBOR, Mich) — ProQuest and the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) are dramatically increasing access to the organization’s working papers through ProQuest’s popular ABI/INFORM business information product as well as ProQuest Central and a variety of niche databases. Working papers will double to more than 100,000 by the close of 2012 and will grow to more than 150,000 over the next three years.

“SSRN is devoted to the rapid distribution of ‘tomorrow’s research today’ and we’re delighted to provide another efficient discovery avenue through ProQuest,” said Jeff Wilensky, ProQuest vice-president, publishing.  “We’re committed to a superior research experience. Adding the SSRN content to our information products improves service to scholars by providing previews of top quality research months or even years ahead of when it will be published in journals.”

The expanded agreement follows some important findings by ProQuest in the types of resources most valued and used by academic researchers. Access to pre-publication working papers is becoming increasingly vital for researchers looking to find the latest research and ideas in their field. ProQuest’s research with business faculty shows that working papers are used 85 percent of the time when doing active research as part of creating a scholarly work. 

Access via ABI/INFORM, widely considered the industry standard for business research, will enable researchers to discover the latest SSRN working papers in fields such as economics, finance, management, corporate governance, entrepreneurship, political science, and health. Researchers can access papers within a feature-rich environment that allows for the easy management, sharing, and manipulation of content. ABI/INFORM also includes thousands of full-text journals, periodicals, downloadable data, market and industry reports, trade publications and dissertations.

“We are excited to be working with ProQuest to expand usage of the papers in the SSRN eLibrary”, said Gregg Gordon, SSRN President and CEO.  “The author is our primary customer and this relationship will help us get their research read.”

The expanded agreement with SSRN is part of ProQuest’s ongoing commitment to connect serious researchers with content that inspires advances in global knowledge.  To learn more, visit www.proquest.com.

About SSRN (www.ssrn.com)

Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is a world wide collaborative of over 197,000 authors and more than 1.3 million users that is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science and humanities research. Founded in 1994, it is composed of a number of discipline focused research networks. Each of SSRN’s networks encourages the early distribution of research results by reviewing and distributing submitted abstracts and full text papers from scholars around the world. SSRN encourages readers to communicate directly with other subscribers and authors concerning their own and other’s research.

SSRN’s eJournals cover over 1,000 different subject areas. The eLibrary Database contains information on 430,000 scholarly working papers and forthcoming papers, including full-text 350,000 PDF’s. Users have downloaded over 55 million papers since inception and currently download 10 million papers per year.

SSRN supports the Open Access movement.  Authors may submit papers for free and those papers are downloadable for free.  SSRN was named the Number 1 Open Access Repository in the World by the Ranking Web of World Repositories in 2011.

ProQuest Study Looks Beyond Journals to Identify What Other Sources Faculty Consult for Research

Working papers are tops for active projects, while newspapers and books lead the way for staying current in the field

October 17, 2012 (ANN ARBOR, Mich.) – In addition to using scholarly journals for active research projects, business faculty rely on materials that share insights and ideas ahead of publication, according to a new study from ProQuest that explores non-journal resources. Business faculty members are using working papers, printed books, pre-prints, conference proceedings and dissertations to explore specific research topics. When asked about passive forms of research — such as staying up-to-date in the field or identifying ideas for further research — newspapers join books at the top of most-used resources.

“Scholarly journals are an established resource of research, but greater clarity has been needed to understand how other content types are being used in the research process,” said Jeff Wilensky, ProQuest Vice President, Product Management. “This study shows us that faculty require a breadth of resources in addition to journals to meet their active research requirements in creating scholarly content.”

The study was based on usage statistics in the key scholarly business database ABI/INFORM and a survey of more than one hundred business faculty members and graduate students in the U.S. The survey results found that research for active projects most frequently included exploration of working papers (85%), print books (85%), pre-publication papers (84%) and raw data (83%), followed by conference proceedings (74%), and abstracts (64%), ebooks (56%), and dissertations or theses (55%).  Less popular, but still important, were patents, grey literature, SWOT analysis, videos, standards, best practices reports, blogs, and book reviews.

Also surprising was the popularity of print books versus their “e” counterparts. Despite the growth of e-books, print currently has a stronger following with faculty.

“We expect preferences between print and ‘e’ books to shift quickly over the coming years,” said Mr. Wilensky. “We believe these results are reflective of a combination of habit and availability of content in ebook format, rather than a long-term preference for print.”

For both print and “e,” respondents indicated they will use their own or professional allowance funds to purchase books without checking availability in the library. The convenience of having the item within easy reach is a factor, especially for books that are referred to frequently.

The heavy use of raw data is a growing area of spending and interest among business librarians as they explore how best to meet their researchers’ needs through acquisition, management, and curation. A ProQuest study on data use and archiving is underway, with results available later this year.

Exploration of non-journal research sources is an area of ongoing global study by ProQuest. U.S. research results are available as a white paper here. Global trends and regional differences will be published later in 2012.

To learn more about ProQuest visit www.proquest.com. 

About ProQuest (www.proquest.com)

ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information.  Key to serious research, the company has forged a 70-year reputation as a gateway to the world’s knowledge – from dissertations to governmental and cultural archives to news, in all its forms.  Its role is essential to libraries and other organizations whose missions depend on the management and delivery of complete, trustworthy information.

ProQuest’s massive information pool is made accessible in research environments that accelerate productivity, empowering users to discover, create, and share knowledge.

An energetic, fast-growing organization, ProQuest includes the ProQuest®, Bowker®, Dialog®, ebrary®, and Serials Solutions® businesses and notable research tools such as the RefWorks® and Pivot™ services, as well as its’ Summon® web-scale discovery service.  The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices around the world.

Consistent addition of new features mark the service’s first year

October 15, 2012 (ANN ARBOR, MI USA) – ProQuest is celebrating the first birthday of the innovative Pivot™ service, which streamlines workflow in university research offices.  Now in place in more than 350 institutions worldwide, Pivot enhances the rich combination of COS Funding Opportunities – the most comprehensive, global source of funding — and the acclaimed profiles in COS Scholar Universe, creating a unique source for matching financial support to researchers and partners. Pivot provides universities with a single online location for their faculty, research administrators, managers and research development professionals to use for all funding opportunity searches, even those that rely on institution-specific data.

“We have a 15-year track record of innovation in this arena, creating web-based systems that encourage collaboration in scholarly research and others that boost efficiency for our partners in research offices. Pivot integrates those previous systems, creating a robust solution to support the breadth of research development activity in universities,” said Jeff Baer, Vice-President, Sales and Operations, ProQuest Research Solutions.  “As our newest product iteration marks its first year in the market, we’re delighted with its immediate acceptance by universities around the world and its ongoing evolution as an ever-better and more precise tool for finding the right funding opportunities and the right team for the research project.”

“I’m delighted with Pivot,” said Alicia L. Gahimer, a research development specialist at Purdue University Indianapolis. “The best feature for me is the faculty match on the funding opportunities. It’s much more efficient and convenient. When I show a faculty member how the funding opps also gives them a collaborator, they always say, ‘Oh, Wow! That’s what I need!’”

Throughout its first year, Pivot has continually expanded its service with a variety of new features, including those that enable users to…

·       Set institution-wide search filters for funding.

·       Identify funding specifically for researchers who are new in their careers with the ‘New Faculty/New Investigator’ category, which focuses on funding opportunities for the group that often needs the most help in securing funding.

·       Create and manage groups for sharing funding opportunities.

·       Add internal messages to funding opportunities for efficient communication of important information.

·       Publicize the service to users through a free marketing toolkit.  

Pivot will continue to evolve in the coming months with updates to its look and functionality, a new online support portal that will connect users with the expertise resident in Pivot’s acclaimed support team, and enhanced profile interoperability through VIVO, ORCID and ISNI. Further, expanded reporting functions will allow university administrators to more precisely track activity in Pivot to assess the level of engagement throughout the campus audience.

From Pivot’s inception, institutions around the world have warmed to the convenience and ease it brings them. Combining the most comprehensive editorially-maintained database of $33 billion in funding opportunities with more than three million pre-populated scholar profiles, Pivot’s proprietary connector algorithm enables matches between funding, faculty and collaborators.

In addition to the connections Pivot makes between funding and profiles, it includes tools that make the management of funding opportunities in the pre-award phase more efficient. Users can add internal deadlines to build effective timelines for seizing critical funding opportunities — especially useful for limited submissions. Funding opportunities can be tracked and organized so that highest priorities take center stage. And users can easily stay on top of the funding landscape by saving and organizing their searches, monitoring action steps, and getting weekly updates on active opportunities. 

To learn more visit pivot.cos.com. 

About ProQuest (www.proquest.com)

ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information.  Key to serious research, the company has forged a 70-year reputation as a gateway to the world’s knowledge – from dissertations to governmental and cultural archives to news, in all its forms.  Its role is essential to libraries and other organizations whose missions depend on the management and delivery of complete, trustworthy information.

ProQuest’s massive information pool is made accessible in research environments that accelerate productivity, empowering users to discover, create, and share knowledge.

An energetic, fast-growing organization, ProQuest includes the ProQuest®, Bowker®, Dialog®, ebrary®, and Serials Solutions® businesses and notable research tools such as the RefWorks® and Pivot™ services, as well as its’ Summon® web-scale discovery service.  The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices around the world.