We have begun indexing ProQuest content in Primo Central and will make PDA of ebrary and EBL-eBook Library titles available for Alma customers—to improve service and choice for researchers, students, and librarians.
You may have heard about our latest collaboration, which was announced at ALA. We have agreed with ProQuest to improve user experience via content indexing and multi-strand interoperability between Ex Libris and ProQuest solutions. Dozens of ProQuest’s most widely used content databases will be indexed in the Primo Central Index and, in the second stage, ProQuest’s ebrary® and EBL-Ebook Library® collections will become discoverable by all Primo Central users as well.
The collaboration will also bring with it benefits for Alma customers, for whom Patron Driven Acquisition of titles from ebray and EBL-Ebook Library will shortly be available. In the future, Alma customers can also look forward to more streamlined acquisitions workflows and integrated holdings updates, which will help mutual customers reduce operational costs and enjoy more efficient processes.
Integration and interoperability form the second strand of this cooperation. In the same way that ProQuest management customers can choose Primo as their discovery tool, customers of Alma, Aleph, and Voyager will be able to use ProQuest’s Summon. Both companies will additionally place their focus on refining these interactions and therefore improving the user experience.
I talked to Matti Shem Tov, Ex Libris CEO, about this landmark cooperation. He emphasized that the agreement supports our commitment to content-neutral discovery. In addition, he noted that “enabling Primo Central users to discover and access the extensive scholarly materials contained in ProQuest’s journals and e-books collections will improve the discovery experience for millions of students and researchers worldwide. And the streamlined library management processes offered through enhanced integration of ProQuest services with Alma will boost the efficiency of library operations for the growing Alma community.”
ProQuest are also excited about the potential for cooperation from this agreement. Here are the remarks of their CEO, Kurt Sanford:
“ProQuest is accelerating the interoperability of its products and services on all fronts. We’re aiming to ensure that no matter where a researcher starts, connecting with our content is simple and seamless. When users start with a ProQuest service, we want to be sure that they can go anywhere and discover any content effortlessly.”
For more information on this collaboration please contact us.
February 3, 2014
