EBSCO has long been a major supplier of products and services to libraries, with a broad array of technology and content products and a complex organizational structure. EBSCO Publishing produces products that libraries license to provide access to electronic content, including the EBSCOhost databases and the EBSCO Discovery Service. EBSCO Information Services provides products used by libraries to acquire and manage materials, both print and electronic. The technology products of EBSCO Information Services include the LinkSource link resolver and EBSCO A-Z for providing access to e-journals, with an underlying knowledge base of e-journal holdings.
Until now, these two EBSCO subsidiaries have created and maintained their own and separate technology infrastructures. Linking services, e-journal access, and discovery have become increasingly interrelated tasks. Even though the A-Z and LinkSource resources have always been accessible by EBSCO Discovery Service, they reside on distinct and separate platforms. EBSCO has announced that it will begin merging all of these services into the EBSCO Discovery Services. The consolidation of these tools will not only provide opportunities for more seamless behind-the-scenes integration of the linking and discovery environments, but it will also allow libraries to manage both product families through a single administrative tool.
The integration of the platforms will begin later in 2012 and will be done with consultation and involvement of its customers.
