~Return on Investment and the Streamlining of Library Resources Key Factors in Discovery Service Decision~

IPSWICH, Mass. — August 23, 2011 — Columbia College Chicago, the largest private arts and media college in the United States, has selected EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) from EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO). The college expects that EDS will help improve return on investment and increase productivity by simplifying the research process and providing an enhanced experience for users.

Columbia College Chicago Reference & Instruction Librarian April Levy says that students found the large number of resources available through the library website daunting, and they wanted more streamlined information from the library. Levy says EDS will provide a search experience that is similar to the ways students currently conduct searches online, while exposing more of the college’s resources to students. “We wanted to provide ways for students to search multiple library resources in a single-search interface, because this is what they are accustomed to with Internet searching, to save them time, and to incorporate more of our resources into the search, so we get better return on investment for our electronic and print resources.” Levy says a familiar interface is another advantage for users because students were immediately able to utilize EBSCO Discovery Service for their research needs with minimal instruction.

EBSCO Discovery Service will play an integral role in getting users the information they need. In addition to the single search box capability and ease of use of EDS, the college also appreciates the ability to create Profiles. This functionality allows users to search subcollections of different subject areas so users can limit their searches to Arts & Entertainment Resources, for example. Levy says the concept of subcollections was important because, “it is how our website is currently structured, and we did not want to lose that functionality.”

Levy says that the strong relationship Columbia College Chicago shares with EBSCO in terms of both database content and customer service played a key role in the decision to go with EDS. “We have a good relationship with EBSCO for our electronic resources, and have been pleased with the customer service we receive. This has been true so far for the implementation of the EDS as well.” She expects that to continue as the college grows EDS.

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 350 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