Electronic research databases provider EBSCO Publishing, US, has announced that HeBIS-Verbund in Germany has selected its EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) to provide fast and simple access to more content. HeBIS-Verbund created and runs the Hessian library information system (HeBIS) - an electronic information and service network of mostly academic libraries for the state of Hessen as well as parts of Rheinland Pfalz. HeBIS-Verbund represents one of the six regional library networks in Germany.
Six years ago, HeBIS-Verbund first introduced a portal for researchers that constructed a metasearch over many catalogues and databases. After delivering limited data at a rather slow pace, HeBIS-Verbund decided to explore discovery solutions. The main goal was to provide researchers with as much content as possible from a discovery service. HeBIS-Verbund chose EDS largely due to the comprehensive collection of metadata in the Base Index of EDS and the fast, seamless access to full-text content in other resources.
EDS enables users to search the widest and deepest collection of metadata and quickly access the content to which they have rights. Content components include robust and detailed metadata (e.g., author-supplied abstracts, keywords, subjects, etc.), complete indexing from EBSCOhost databases to which an institution subscribes, complete indexing from important non-EBSCOhost databases (to which a customer subscribes) as well as other content options including loading an institution's complete OPAC directly into EDS or an institutional repository.
EBSCO Discovery Service creates a unified, customised 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 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 catalogue, 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.
