PSWICH, Mass., USA – April 21, 2009 – EBSCO is announcing the creation of a new discovery layer designed to be the most comprehensive online research service in the industry. This new system will harvest metadata from internal and external sources, creating a centralized pre-indexed service of unprecedented size and speed. EBSCO Discovery Service will provide libraries with a single, simple entry point for research and launch users into the entire array of a library's collection. The new service is expected by the end of the calendar year.
Powered by EBSCOhost technology, the new discovery service will enable users to search a wide-ranging collection of metadata and link quickly to the content to which they have rights. EBSCO Discovery Service will allow for "local" access to the metadata associated with EBSCO Publishing's leading databases, e-journals from more than 400 publishers, and additional resources from other partners, including: OCLC, NewsBank, Readex, Alexander Street Press, and others. According to Melissa D'Amato, EBSCO Publishing's vice president of publisher relations, "We expect this new service will be one of the major developments in the library world in 2009. Other newly announced discovery tools are getting a lot of attention for marketing products that will harvest content from far fewer partners than we are working with. EBSCO has partnered with hundreds of publishers for this initiative. As a result, EBSCO Discovery Service will be the world's highest quality, most comprehensive locally indexed front end discovery tool."
Due to the newly announced partnership with OCLC, local indexing of WorldCat will add rapid access to the metadata for 130 million books, videos and music CDs. Locally indexed content will also include the wide-ranging news and information resources from NewsBank and the comprehensive digital collections from its Readex division. Alexander Street Press is also participating, allowing access to its historical archive, music, and video collections. New partnerships for additional locally indexed content will be announced in the near future.
In addition to the locally indexed content, libraries will have the ability to search the content of the over 300 databases on EBSCOhost, as well as databases on remote services through EBSCOhost Integrated Search (EHIS), the federated search service that is based on the popular EBSCOhost platform and expected for release in June 2009.
EBSCO Publishing chief information officer Michael Gorrell says EBSCO Discovery Service provides a two-pronged approach to information discovery. The first component is fast access to locally indexed items and the ability to link to a library's full text collection. The second is the Integrated Search component that provides a true integration of content that is not locally available. "Users want quick and comprehensive access to information—the goal of this comprehensive service is to provide a single point of entry to a library's collection within a powerful user experience."
Taking customization to a new level, the EBSCO complete discovery solution will provide the features, functionality and power of EBSCOhost within a customizable framework. Libraries will be able to adjust branding components including colors, logos and search pages to create a starting point geared to their users' needs.
The new service will be available for purchase prior to the end of 2009.
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. For more information, visit the EBSCO Publishing Web site at: www.ebscohost.com, or contact: information@ebscohost.com.