Electronic research databases provider EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO), US, has announced that the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) has selected EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) as its discovery service. UMUC was interested in the immediate goal of serving the unique needs of its students while also keeping an eye on the future of discovery. UMUC is a part of the 16-library University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions.
One of the 11 accredited, degree-granting institutions of the University System of Maryland, UMUC claims to be a leader in providing distance education. The library sought a 'one stop' method of providing access to the plethora of resources it makes available to students, faculty, and staff. With the majority of courses offered online, the library also needed a method to integrate its electronic resources into UMUC's learning management system. UMUC plans to explore using learning technology interoperability standards with EBSCO Discovery Service to integrate resources into the courses being offered.
UMUC will soon be moving to an outcomes-based undergraduate curriculum with accelerated terms. The potential to enable EDS search boxes within the redesigned courses and library-created course guides was also a benefit. The wide variety of graduate programmes at UMUC, including two doctoral programmes, will also be well-served by EDS.
Other key EDS features for UMUC include: the familiar EBSCOhost interface, fast cross-searching of the majority of library resources, the ability to embed search boxes, robust metadata and subject indexing, and the full user experience that EDS provides. The university is expecting the integration of NetLibrary eBooks on to the EBSCOhost platform to provide an even greater service to users.
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 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.
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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