(6 November 2018, Ann Arbor, MI.) ProQuest is commencing the development of the Rialto service, a ground-breaking approach to unify selection and acquisition in academic libraries. Through benchmark analytics, recommendations, and a comprehensive marketplace with content of all types – books, ebooks, video and more — from many sources, libraries will have the tools to become more effective and efficient.
Ten universities are partnering with ProQuest to guide the development of Rialto. North American development partners include Boston University, Northeastern University, San Jose State University, Southern Methodist University, University of Texas at Dallas and University of Windsor. Development partners from the United Kingdom are University of Edinburgh, University of Leicester, Northumbria University and Imperial College London.
“This is about reimagining how libraries select and acquire content in ways never before possible, solving longstanding pain points and inefficiencies in the library,” said Oren Beit-Arie, ProQuest Chief Strategy Officer. “Rialto is focused on addressing library and user needs. Its comprehensive marketplace enables the selection of non-ProQuest and ProQuest content of all types, putting choice in the library and aligning with our core value of supporting openness.”
“This journey began with an idea and to lead its evolution into a next generation product in partnership with innovators in the academic library community is an honor. Involving libraries and users in the development is an essential part of our process. That’s why we are so pleased these 10 schools have joined with us,” said Audrey Marcus, ProQuest Vice President, Product & Operations. “In fact, we’re expanding the roster of partners. In early 2019, we will begin recruiting universities in Australia and New Zealand.”
Built on the Alma platform, the ProQuest Rialto tool is a collaborative project between colleagues at ProQuest and Ex Libris. Hear from the development partners and get updates on ProQuest Rialto here.
Library Technology Guides has the announcement in full here.
