Summon Roadmap Highlights

Overview

The Summon/360 2026 roadmap details the discovery features to be released throughout the year. The roadmap is based on strategic enhancements, ideas from the Idea Exchange, CERV enhancements, and community feedback. This roadmap focuses on the highlights. The feature status will be updated according to each quarterly release.

As always, the roadmap balances necessary infrastructure investment and resolving issues reported by the community. Each quarterly release will include new features, problem resolutions, and infrastructure work and will be detailed in the release notes. The roadmap is subject to change based on community feedback and shifting challenges and priorities.

Important Dates

Quarterly Release Date Preview Release Date
February 4, 2026 January 21, 2026
May 6, 2026 April 22, 2026
August 5, 2026 July 22, 2026
November 4, 2026 October 21, 2026

Roadmap

2026 H1 2026 H2

2026 H1

What's New? Highlights Impact Status
Refine assignment of Peer Review flag Distinguish between “Book” and “Book Review” when applying the Peer Review flag Present more accurate results to Summon users and reduce confusion In progress
Adjust mapping for “Music” content type

  • CERV project

  • Review & adjust how the MARC 008 field is applied to music resources

 Allow libraries to highlight their music resources in Summon results for search, display, and faceting Included in the May 2026 release.
Retain stop words in phrase searches

  • CERV project

  • Stop words that appear at the end of a phrase will not be dropped

 Summon users can successfully get results for searches such as “coming out” In progress
Add content type “Game”

  • CERV project

  • Enrich the available content type dictionary for unique resources

 Allow libraries to highlight their game resources in Summon results for search, display, and faceting Included in the April 2026 release
Improve branding options for the Summon home page

  • CERV project

  • Update the permitted size of small and large logos

  • Implement auto-adjustment where possible

 Standardize the logo sizes to reflect modern conventions and reduce staff frustration In progress
360 Client Center accessibility updates Continuous striving towards WCAG A, AA compliance Increased and improved support for Summon researchers that use assistive devices Included in the February 2026 release.
Ulrichsweb accessibility updates Continuous striving towards WCAG A, AA compliance Increased and improved support for Ulrichsweb and USAS researchers that use assistive devices Included in the May 2026 release.

2026 H2

What's New? Highlights Impact Status
Return select Research Assistant information in the Summon search results Integrate the Research Assistant overview into the native Summon search results
  • Offers Summon users a valuable topic summarization with associated resources.
  • Suggests additional discovery paths
 Scheduled
KBART Auto Holdings – Sage Harness KBART infrastructure in 360 to automatically update subscriptions Saves valuable staff time by reducing manual ERM tasks Scheduled
Deselect individual titles from Auto Holdings databases

  • CERV project

  • Loosen the rules of Auto Holdings to allow deactivation of individual titles

 Gives staff more flexibility in managing titles for databases that utilize Auto Holdings capabilities Scheduled
Download content mapping from Summon Admin Console

  • CERV project

  • Real-time access to the current content mapping for the library’s catalog records

 Eliminates the need to open a Support case, giving staff immediate access to the information they need Scheduled
Real Time Availability (RTA) language & translation

  • CERV project

  • Display RTA information in the Summon-selected language

 Delivers a consistent, expected user experience to Summon users Scheduled
Display custom database descriptions for Summon over Alma libraries

  • CERV project

  • Show enriched information about databases that libraries curate

 Gives Summon users supplemental about library resources that staff deem Scheduled
Email when location mapping changes are complete

  • CERV project

  • Send an email to library staff when a location change is indexed and complete

 Saves staff time by eliminating the need to keep checking in on the status Scheduled
IPv6 support Enhance 360 Client Center to accept, store, and share with Summon IP addresses that adhere to the IPv6 protocol Complies with campus and provider requirements for better security and performance In progress
Natural language searching in Summon Allows users to input search queries as conversational questions or phrases rather than strict Boolean keywords Enables discovery with ordinary language rather than prescribed syntax or an advanced search Under analysis
Improve subjection normalization Refactor the subjection normalization rules to retain link between main headings and sub-headings Display and facet full, authorized subject headings to Summon users for discovery precision Scheduled
Summon accessibility improvements Continuous striving towards WCAG A, AA compliance based on the 2026 VPAT Increased and improved support for Summon researchers that use assistive devices Scheduled