~ University of Maryland University College Looks to the Future of Discovery with its Selection of EBSCO Discovery Service™ ~

IPSWICH, Mass. — August 3, 2011 — University of Maryland University College (UMUC) has selected EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) from EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) as its discovery service. UMUC was interested in the immediate goal of serving the unique needs of its students while also keeping an eye on the future of discovery.

One of the 11 accredited, degree-granting institutions of the University System of Maryland, UMUC is a leader in providing distance education. With a global student population, including a large number of military students, the UMUC Library’s virtual presence is the primary point of access to library research materials. The library sought a “one stop” method of providing access to the plethora of resources it makes available to students, faculty, and staff. Associate Provost for Information & Library Services, Stephen Miller says enhanced search capability was also critical. “Improved search capability has been something that our students and faculty have been requesting for a long time, and EBSCO Discovery Service will really revolutionize the way that users access and search our online library resources.”

With the majority of courses offered online, the library also needed a method to integrate its electronic resources into UMUC’s learning management system. UMUC plans to explore using learning technology interoperability standards with EBSCO Discovery Service to integrate resources into the courses being offered.

UMUC will soon be moving to an outcomes-based undergraduate curriculum with accelerated terms. UMUC Digital Resources Librarian, Lenore England, says a discovery tool was needed to serve as the library portal to help students find information more efficiently and effectively. “We needed something that could really get students using the library’s resources quickly.” The potential to enable EDS search boxes within the redesigned courses and library-created course guides was also a benefit. The wide variety of graduate programs at UMUC, including two doctoral programs, will also be well-served by EDS.

UMUC is a part of the 16-library University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions. The consortium as a whole is in the process of investigating discovery services and England says EDS was always at the top of the list for UMUC. EDS worked well with the existing tools, such as the link resolver that UMUC was using, and EBSCO has proven to be very willing to work with the institution’s current resources. “Given the economy, tight budgets and the unique needs of UMUC, EBSCO was willing to work with what we had and we didn’t see that with other services.” Since there are so many distance learners, UMUC is not as reliant on the library catalog as other sites but EBSCO made it easy to add a federated option (EBSCOhost Integrated Search™) and establish EDS as the main library portal instead of the catalog.

Other key EDS features for UMUC include: the familiar EBSCOhost® interface, fast cross-searching of the majority of library resources, the ability to embed search boxes, robust metadata and subject indexing, and the full user experience that EDS provides. England says the university is expecting the integration of NetLibrary eBooks on to the EBSCOhost platform to provide an even greater service to users. “The use of NetLibrary eBooks is off the charts so eBooks are a huge part of our service to the end users. Having those resources on EBSCOhost, as a part of EDS and our library portal, will allow us to better serve our distance learners.”

England says she is fortunate to work at an institution that is innovative and can act quickly on ideas. UMUC is looking to lead the development of the next generation of education and sees EBSCO Discovery Service as, “a tool that is flexible and has great functionality so it can move forward with the library.”

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 100 million newspaper articles, more than 400,000 conference proceedings and hundreds of thousands of additional information sources from various source-types.

About EBSCO Publishing
EBSCO Publishing is the producer of EBSCOhost®, the world’s premier for-fee online research service, including full-text databases, subject indexes, point-of-care medical reference, historical digital archives, and eBooks. The company provides more than 300 databases and nearly 300,000 eBooks. Through a library of tens of thousands of full-text journals and magazines from renowned publishers, EBSCO serves the content needs of all researchers (Academic, Medical, K-12, Public Library, Corporate, Government, etc.). EBSCO is also the provider of EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS), which provides each institution with a fast, single search box for its entire collection, offering deeper indexing and more full-text searching of 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.

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For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Director of Public Relations
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebscohost.com

LibLime Announces New Features in LibLime Academic Koha
“By Academic Librarians for Academic Librarians”

Bethesda, MD – August 3, 2011 -For over two years, LibLime has worked with Westchester Academic Library Directors Organization (WALDO), to build an ILS specifically for academic libraries. LibLime Academic Koha is the result. Designed, tested and used by academic librarians, LibLime Academic Koha offers the right platform for making an ILS be all that it can be. With LibLime and WALDO, academic librarians have the opportunity to work with like-minded professionals toward a shared goal of designing software that works for them.

LibLime Academic Koha includes a complete end-to-end course reserves module. This module provides librarians with the ability to:
• manage a list of courses;
• link courses to one or more professors;
• provide access points for courses with expected descriptors, such as department, course name, course number, instructors;
• edit course during the term;
• enable or disable an individual course—especially useful for classes offered during the same term each academic year;
• retain circulation locations and item types so removing items from a course list is completed by clicking on a Remove button; and
• delete a course at the end of term.
Patrons can readily locate courses and items on reserve in the OPAC either by clicking on the link to Course Reserves or by searching the catalog.

About WALDO
Westchester Academic Library Directors Organization (WALDO) is a membership organization supporting the procurement & administration of electronic information services for libraries since 1982. Supporting over 900 member libraries, WALDO offers consortial discounts for over 5,000 products and services. For more information, please visit WALDO at www.waldolib.org or contact Rob Karen at rob@waldolib.org or (866) 579-6051 ext. 101. Other advantages of choosing a LibLime solution through WALDO include volume discounts, standard contracts, consolidated renewal and centralized billing. Participation in the LibLime discounts through WALDO is available to all WALDO members.

About LibLime, a division of PTFS
LibLime, a division of PTFS, is the global leader in professional Koha support. LibLime’s robust staff of programmers, data specialists, librarians, system administrators and project managers, provides first class consulting, implementation, data migration, training, development, and maintenance/hosting services for Koha in libraries of all types and sizes. PTFS is the developer of the world’s leading digital content management software, ArchivalWare, and also specializes in library staffing requirements, digitization, and systems integration. For more information, see liblime.com or ptfs.com or archivalware.net.