CR2 Blog

July 28th, 2010
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

The Rolling Hills Consolidated Library Partners with ByWater Solutions for Koha Support and Implementation

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and official Koha support company, announced today that the Rolling Hills Consolidated Library, of St Joseph, Missouri, has partnered with them for the implementation and support of their official Koha integrated library system installation.

"We like the idea of open source and the fact that we would be part of a community of libraries and developers working to make it a great library system." stated June Stancliff, Technical Services Manager at Rolling Hills. "And, of course," she added, "there is also the money issue."

When asked about partnering with ByWater Solutions for their support and implementation, June stated that "ByWater seems to be committed to keeping Koha open. We also like the fact that the majority of the people in the company are librarians and will understand our problems and needs."

"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with the staff of the Rolling Hills Consolidated Library" stated Brendan Gallagher, CEO of ByWater. "We love to see that members of their library are already active in the Koha Community, and we look forward to a long and productive relationship."

The Rolling Hills Consolidated Library is targeted to go live by the end of this summer.

About the Rolling Hills Consolidated Library:
The Rolling Hills Consolidated Library serves the residents of Andrew and Buchanan counties in northwest Missouri with a variety of services. In addition to our two branch locations, we also take materials into dozens of outlying communities and senior care facilities. Our slogan is "Explore the past. Enhance the present. Create the future." With almost 200,000 items in our collection, the library is just the place to do that! For more information, please visit: http://rhcl.org

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: 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: www.bywatersolutions.com

~EBSCO Discovery Service™ Seen as an Essential Element in a Unifying Platform for a New Engagement-based Library ~

IPSWICH, Mass. —July 27, 2010 — Millersville University has chosen EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) from EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) as its discovery solution. While working with EBSCO as an EDS beta partner, the university found that EDS fit very well into the library’s overall goal of becoming an engagement-based organization rather than the holder of disparate collections. By adding EBSCO Discovery Service, Millersville has created what they call a unifying platform—a way in which the library will be able to make content and services available to users—improving integration in various student spaces and facilitating engagement with students and faculty while building on the power and familiarity of EBSCOhost®.

Millersville University Associate Professor and Information Systems Librarian Scott Anderson says EDS takes content and customization to a new level. “We are able to leverage more of our collection through a known platform—EBSCOhost, which is highly customizable and offers us the ability to push content and services to users based on specific goals and needs. We want to engage with our users and EDS gives us the opportunity to make content available in a holistic way, reshaping how the library is used and perceived.”

Millersville University was able to assist EBSCO in developing a process for handling standard file and record group extracts from their ILS that allows institutions to easily add their local catalog to the EBSCOhost platform. The catalog can then be included in a comprehensive discovery index or included in indexes specifically for a particular subject or academic discipline. In addition, Millersville has added a number of additional Dublin Core based special collections to the EDS platform to enhance the exposure of local content as well. EDS has a functional out of the box configuration and a simple implementation process while allowing customization options including profiling appropriate library subject specialists, relevant or related services and logical content. This facilitates logical placement of the library in spaces such as the learning management/course shell space, program or department Web presence and more traditional library guides.

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.

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.

About EBSCO Publishing
EBSCO Publishing is the world’s premier database aggregator, offering a suite of nearly 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 and 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 Manager
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebscohost.com

DALLAS, TX, July 26 – Amigos Library Services will present a one day online conference “Reference @ Your Library” on August 31. The conference will include sessions focusing on how mobile technology (may) impact reference, embedding reference librarians in online classes, and determining whether technology is a burden or a blessing.

“This conference is entirely online, which makes it an affordable alternative for many librarians to participate in a time where many library budgets continue to shrink,” says Laura Kimberly, Amigos Continuing Education Services Manager. “Amigos is pleased to offer an event that librarians all over the country can enjoy. Many of our speakers are well-known in the field and will present topics of current interest to library managers and reference librarians.”

Keynote speaker, Brenda Dervin, Ph.D., will kick off the conference with her talk “The Greatest Information Need: Information Mediation.” Dervin’s talk will focus on the "greatest" information need -- what she’s learned about it from 35 years of researching information needs of myriad population groups -- expert and lay, rich and poor, virtually every cultural group, in virtually every context.

For more information and to sign up for the conference, visit http://referenceonline.amigos.org/. Early bird registration runs through August 17.


About Amigos Library Services - For more than 35 years, Amigos Library Services has helped its members obtain affordable services and share library resources and knowledge. With over 600 members, Amigos is one of the largest consortia of libraries and cultural heritage institutions in the United States. Through membership in Amigos, libraries collectively gain access to the latest innovations and services in the library community; pursue opportunities for continuing professional education; leverage their buying power; and preserve the region’s rich cultural heritage. This collaboration strengthens each member’s ability to serve and lead its community in the creative and effective use of information resources.

Media Contact:
Terri Maguire Mertz
Amigos Library Services
972.340.2855
mertz@amigos.org
www.amigos.org

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~ Evidence-based Information for Food Industry Professionals ~

IPSWICH, Mass. — July 22, 2010 — EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) extends its evidence-based information solutions to the food industry with the release of Food Industry Watch™. This new resource is a robust executive decision support tool providing the most-current, objective information available on all topics affecting the food industry.

Food Industry Watch is designed specifically to support the information needs of corporate executives in the hospitality, food service and food production industries. The new resource offers access to more than 200 evidence-based, industry-related reports covering topics such as:

• compliance & regulation
• food availability
• food production
• food safety & quality
• food science & technology
• food service, management
• marketing and specialty foods

Food Industry Watch has adapted EBSCO’s core evidence-based methodology to areas of interest to corporate executives. The evidence-based approach identifies, selects and systematically evaluates pertinent information and creates a synthesis of the best available evidence. EBSCO’s experience with evidence-based content includes Sustainability Watch™ and Corporate Learning Watch™ as well as the point-of-care resources it provides to hospitals and other medical institutions including the clinical decision support resource DynaMed™.

Food Industry Watch may be integrated into corporate portals and Intranets. The EBSCOhost® Integration Toolkit allows EBSCO’s content to be incorporated into an organization’s workflow—providing seamless access to premium content.

Food Industry Watch joins a collection of food industry databases available through EBSCO including Food Science Source™ and FSTA – Food Science & Technology Abstracts™.
About EBSCO Publishing
EBSCO Publishing is the world’s premier database aggregator serving the content needs of corporations, associations and organizations of all types. EBSCO offers a suite of more than 300 full-text and secondary research databases providing content from tens of thousands of full-text journals, magazines, books, monographs, reports and various other publication types from renowned publishers. Databases provide information for areas ranging from research & development and corporate learning to departmental and industry-specific topics. EBSCO’s product lines include proprietary databases such as Business Source® Corporate, Business Book Summaries™, Learning Centers™, Business Basics™, Academic Search® R&D, Nonprofit Organization Reference Center™, and Health Library™ as well as dozens of leading licensed databases. Databases are powered by EBSCOhost®, the most-used for-fee electronic resource in libraries around the world, and may be integrated into corporate intranets, portals and learning management systems. 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 Manager
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebscohost.com

IPSWICH, Mass. — July 20, 2010 — In the coming year, Northeastern University will explore the impact of a one-stop “discovery” system on user research and has chosen to work with the EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS)—a unified, customized index of available information resources. The Library was ready to upgrade to a next generation catalog at the time when discovery services were being introduced and one of the main reasons Northeastern chose EBSCO Discovery Service was the familiarity of the EBSCOhost® platform. By leveraging this platform, EDS offers a single interface for discovery of a library’s entire collection and the powerful features to heighten the research experience, providing everything the researcher needs in one place.

Northeastern University Associate Dean for Scholarly Resources, Amira Aaron, says the timing was just right for the university. “We were not satisfied with the federated search experience and wanted to provide a more streamlined way for our community to discover information in multiple resources, including our local repositories and open access content. Northeastern students know the EBSCOhost platform and by introducing EDS we are able to provide additional content and include our catalog, all within a familiar environment which means an easy transition for students and staff.”

Northeastern will work with EBSCO in the next several months to add its Institutional Repository and local digitized content into EDS, providing even more content from the single search interface—creating a truly custom collection. The ability to pull these additional resources into the EBSCOhost platform was another reason for choosing EBSCO Discovery Service. Aaron says, “We want to provide our students with as much content as possible from our discovery service and eliminate multiple silos of information, while improving access to previously underused resources. We also look forward to working with EBSCO and our counterparts at other institutions on further enhancements to the service.”

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 and 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