Electronic research databases provider EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO), US, has announced that Illinois State University (ISU) has selected EBSCO Discovery Service from EBSCO Publishing as its discovery solution. With this initiative, the ISU seeks to provide a single search experience and fast, simple access to the library's print and electronic content. The university was looking for a new option to update its existing 'Search It' resource to open up library resources to users.
When Illinois State University first introduced its 'Search It' federated search technology was new and consortial funding was available. A few years later, with federated search a less than impressive experience and no more outside funding available, ISU began looking for a better option. The library was looking for a resource that had a variety of features, provided access to a large amount of content and promised to increase access to the library collection.
Because EDS is able to expand the number of resources available within the discovery result list, while also letting the library include results from traditionally federated sources, ISU is able to provide faculty members with a richer set of options and results while decreasing the number of federated connectors and lowering the cost of federation.
EDS also helps students and faculty explore resources that weren't in the catalogue creating a bridge between the link resolver and the discovery service and exposing researchers to information the library previously had difficulty letting users know about.
While the name Search It will not change, Illinois State University will promote the service to students returning in the fall as a new and improved Search It powered by EBSCOhost. The customization options in EDS will allow the library to change the colours and include logos that will serve as visual cues that this is a new system for searching both the electronic and print collection at ISU.
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. The EDS Base Index 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.
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.
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