~U.K. University expects EBSCO Discovery Service™ to Play Key Role in its Digital Library~

IPSWICH, Mass. — September 20, 2011 — The University of Cumbria in the United Kingdom has chosen EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) from EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) to play an integral role in bringing a readily accessible digital library to students. The University will use its implementation of EDS to provide on-and off-campus end users with the most efficient way to search multiple eResources from a single search box, and to offer seamless access to full-text results.

Since the implementation of EDS at the University of Cumbria, statistics have already shown an increase in the usage of eResources overall, and the University expects EDS to prove particularly useful to those students who study off campus, according to Michael Stanning, Information, Policy and Administration Manager at the University of Cumbria. “Students told us that using multiple electronic resources was confusing and time consuming. EDS provides them with a familiar Google-like interface by which to access much of the online licensed full-text content that the University subscribes to. This ease of access to online content is fundamental to our plans for a digital library,” says Stanning.

Stanning says the University’s decision to go with EDS was strongly influenced by the positive feedback EDS received from subject librarians in response to presentations and trials, as well as the solid relationship the University enjoys with EBSCO. He also noted that the Base Index associated with EDS contained many of the University’s key eResources, and Stanning cited the “amount and quality of results from the base index” as another deciding factor. He reports that students have found the system fast, easy to use and a real aid to research.

The University has taken advantage of the robust customization options available in EDS and the ability to create a unified branding image. The University has made EDS its own, running a student competition to find a new and original name. The result was Quest— branding it beyond the basics to align with corporate branding and giving what Stanning referred to as “an attractive look” to the portal.

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
Public Relations Director
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebscohost.com

9/20/2011
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

The College of the Redwoods Goes Live on Koha with ByWater Solutions

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and official Koha support company, announced today that the College of the Redwoods, of Eureka, CA. is now live on their installation of the Koha integrated library system.

The College Library's Koha installation went live in July, and ByWater Solutions will be
providing ongoing support and hosting services for them.

Library staff at College of the Redwoods, stated "we are excited to be partnering with other libraries that are embracing open source technology."

The College has three primary campuses and several additional sites where courses and programs are offered to serve the education needs of Humboldt, Del Norte, coastal Mendocino, and western Trinity counties. The College of the Redwoods Library houses over 88,000 volumes. Their customized online catalog can be found at http://library.redwoods.edu/

About the College of the Redwoods:
College of the Redwoods puts student success first by providing outstanding developmental, career technical, and transfer education. The College partners with the community to contribute to the economic vitality and lifelong learning needs of its service area. We continually assess student learning and institutional performance and practices to improve upon the programs and services we offer. For more information, please visit: http://www.redwoods.edu/

About Koha:
Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha's impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. It includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more.

Koha’s OPAC, circulation, management and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies--XHTML, CSS and Javascript--making Koha a truly platform-independent solution. Koha is distributed under the open-source General Public License (GPL). For more information about Koha, please visit: http://www.koha-community.org

About ByWater Solutions:
With over 10 years of experience, ByWater Solutions offers customized hosting, data migration, configuration, installation, training, support options and development of enterprise class open-source library systems. Offering a 24/7 technical helpline, ByWater Solutions’ clients have the support system they need to make their software work for them. ByWater Solutions pledges to share 100% of all developed code to the Koha community for the strengthening and advancement of the Koha ILS. For more information about ByWater Solutions, please visit: http://www.bywatersolutions.com