June 4, 2018

On August 1, 2018, the Drexel University Libraries will fully replace its online library catalog with Summon, a powerful yet simple search tool that allows users to search across the Libraries' complete physical and electronic collections and licensed resources, including books, scholarly articles, dissertations, archival material and more.

The Libraries currently offers Summon search for discovering journals, journal articles, print and ebooks, but not for other resources such as databases. Following this change, Summon will be used to search all the Libraries’ physical collections and licensed information resources.

This change comes as part of the Libraries’ move to replace its current library management system, Millennium, with the innovative, cloud-based management system called Alma. Millennium has become less effective in allowing the Libraries to expand the various automated functions critical for the Libraries’ staff to efficiently manage electronic resources and databases, metadata descriptions, discovery and circulation services, reserves and resource sharing services. These activities increasingly involve multiple formats—including print books and journals, audio recordings and visual images—and require greater capacity for managing research data and digital assets.

With the implementation of Alma integrated with Summon, the Libraries will offer a platform for the future information and research needs of the Drexel community.

For more information about Summon or the migration to Alma, contact libraries@drexel.edu