Ann Arbor’s ProQuest to Develop Library Selection and Acquisition Service

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ProQuest, an information content and technologies company based in Ann Arbor, Tuesday announced it has started developing its Rialto service, an approach to unify selection and acquisition in academic libraries.

Through benchmark analytics, recommendations, and a comprehensive marketplace with content of all types from many sources, ProQuest hopes to make libraries more effective and efficient.

“This is about reimagining how libraries select and acquire content in ways never before possible, solving longstanding pain points and inefficiencies in the library,” says Oren Beit-Arie, chief strategy officer at ProQuest. “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.”

ProQuest is partnering with Boston University, Northeastern University, San Jose State University, Southern Methodist University, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Windsor, University of Edinburgh, University of Leicester, Northumbria University, and Imperial College London to help guide Rialto’s development.

“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,” says Audrey Marcus, vice president of product and operations at ProQuest.

“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. In fact, we’re expanding the roster of partners. In early 2019, we will begin recruiting universities in Australia and New Zealand.”

Rialto will be built on the Alma platform and is a collaborative project between colleagues at ProQuest and Ex Libris.