InfoTech Briefs: SirsiDynix, Credo Reference, Serials Solutions

SirsiDynix releases Enterprise/SchoolRooms 3.0, Credo platform growing, academics using Summon

Michael Rogers -- Library Journal, 11/04/2009

• SirsiDynix releases Enterprise/SchoolRooms 3.0
• Credo platform sports 173 new subject encyclopedias
• Michigan’s Grand Valley State University/University of South Australia running Summon

SirsiDynix®, is now marketing Enterprise™ 3.0, which offers users a single search to discover all resources the library makes available. Those resources might include one or more library catalogs, digital collections, selected web sites, and federated databases. Because Enterprise is a hosted solution, it will scale to accommodate any amount of searchable content and can have a footprint as small as a search box widget or serve as a full library web presence and content management system. The vendor also has released SchoolRooms™ 3.0. Designed to meet both state and federal education standards, SchoolRooms lets students access library resources, online databases, and approved web content alongside new and past curriculum specifically created for SchoolRooms users.

After launching its new platform roughly one year ago, Credo Reference has greatly expanded its academic content. The reference house reports that since the platform’s debut, 173 new subject encyclopedias, ten new publishers, and coverage of 15 core undergraduate subjects have been added. Most recently, Credo signed an agreement to integrate into its General Reference collection four key Springer Science+Business Media encyclopedias: The Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology, Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender, The Encyclopedia of Public Choice, and the Encyclopedia of Women’s Health.

In less than two months’ implementation time, the first two commercial adopters of the Summon™ service have started up Serials Solutions’ web-scale discovery tool at their universities. Michigan’s Grand Valley State University and the University of South Australia have their Summon sites running for the new semester, enabling students and faculty to search the breadth of the libraries’ collections—physical and digital, at the article level—from a single search box.