CR2 Blog the knowledge blog
  • LISWire: James Madison University Chooses EBSCO Discovery Service™

    0
    scissors
    August 10th, 2010LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    ~Discovery Service from EBSCO Publishing Allows JMU to Customize the Search Experience and Ensure Quality Article Search with Quick Response Times ~

    IPSWICH, Mass. — August 10, 2010 — James Madison University (JMU) has selected EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) as its discovery solution—combining the university library catalog with article content into an integrated result list. The deciding factors for JMU were the customization options, powerful article and journal metadata plus the rapid response times available with EDS. The university’s library staff also believes EDS has all the major features of today’s discovery tools: real-time availability, faceted search, and integrated result sets.

    EBSCO Discovery Service offers a variety of customizability options that build on the powerful EBSCOhost® platform. James Madison University’s Content Interfaces Coordinator and Associate Professor, Jody Condit Fagan, says the ability to customize the search experience was a key reason JMU chose EBSCO Discovery Service. “We were familiar with the numerous customization options possible with EBSCOhost and we were glad to see that EDS not only preserved the existing customization options but also added additional options.” EDS allows sites to add widgets to the right hand column of the interface and customize the toolbar to allow for the addition of more library resources and functionality. Each institution is also able to choose interface colors and logos to brand the library and its services rather than EDS itself.

    Fagan says another reason JMU was attracted to EBSCO Discovery Service is EBSCO’s track record with article search. “While seeing our library catalog data in EDS was new, we had no questions about the depth of article and journal metadata in EBSCOhost databases or EBSCO’s article relevance ranking. EBSCO has this part of the problem solved, and at JMU, we know more article searching is done than book searching.” Delivery speed was also a deciding factor for JMU. “We experienced no trouble with service response times either, which is impressive considering the large amount of data being searched.”

    James Madison University also appreciates the approach EBSCO has taken regarding development including regular webinars with librarian beta partners which have allowed librarians to see EBSCO’s commitment to listening to customers firsthand. Fagan says the EDS technical support and product management teams have been responsive and knowledgeable and quickly respond to any questions during the development and implementation process.

    EBSCO Discovery Service creates a unified, customized index of an institution’s information resources, and an easy, yet powerful means of accessing all of that content from a single search box—searching made even more powerful because of the quality of metadata and depth and breadth of coverage.

    The Base Index for EBSCO Discovery Service forms the foundation upon which each EDS subscribing library builds out its custom collection. Beginning with the Base Index, each institution extends the reach of EDS by adding appropriate resources including its catalog, institutional repositories, EBSCOhost and other databases, and additional content sources to which it subscribes. It is this combination that allows a single, comprehensive, custom solution for discovering the value of any library’s collection.

    The EDS Base Index is comprised of metadata from the world’s foremost information providers. At present, the EDS Base Index represents content from approximately 20,000 providers in addition to metadata from another 70,000 book publishers. Although constantly growing, today the EDS Base Index provides metadata for nearly 50,000 magazines & journals, approximately 825,000 CDs & DVDs, nearly six million books, more than 20,000 conference proceedings and hundreds of thousands of additional information sources from various source-types.

    About EBSCO Publishing
    EBSCO Publishing is the world’s premier database aggregator, offering a suite of more than 300 full-text and secondary research databases. Through a library of tens of thousands of full-text journals, magazines, books, monographs, reports and various other publication types from renowned publishers, EBSCO serves the content needs of all researchers (Academic, Medical, K-12, Public Library, Corporate, Government, etc.). The company’s product lines include proprietary databases such as Academic Search™, Business Source®, CINAHL®, DynaMed™, Literary Reference Center™, MasterFILE™, NoveList®, SocINDEX™ and SPORTDiscus™ as well as dozens of leading licensed databases such as ATLA Religion Database™, EconLit, Inspec®, MEDLINE®, MLA International Bibliography, The Philosopher’s Index™, PsycARTICLES® and PsycINFO®. Databases are powered by EBSCOhost®, the most-used for-fee electronic resource in libraries around the world. EBSCO is the provider of EBSCO Discovery Service™ a core collection of locally-indexed metadata creating a unified index of an institution’s resources within a single, customizable search point providing everything the researcher needs in one place—fast, simple access to the library’s full text content, deeper indexing and more full-text searching of more journals and magazines than any other discovery service (www.ebscohost.com/discovery). For more information, visit the EBSCO Publishing Web site at: www.ebscohost.com, or contact: information@ebscohost.com.

    EBSCO Publishing is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.
    ###
    For more information, please contact:
    Kathleen McEvoy
    Public Relations Manager
    (800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
    kmcevoy@ebscohost.com

Comments are closed.