Single-Search to Quality Content with EBSCO Discovery Service
Jinfo Blog

By Graham Southorn

Abstract

Providing secure access to multiple databases via single-search, EBSCO Discovery Services promises to save you time and money. It was one of the first "one stop shops" for information searches, but is it a market leader?

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Giving your employees access to quality content is one thing; getting them to use it is quite another. As we heard in a Jinfo Webinar last March, 75% of users at Cargill were using Google to search for information, despite the fact that the company's employees already had access to sophisticated information-gathering tools.

As discussed in the webinar, Cargill turned to EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), which is the subject of our latest product review.

EDS provides employees with access to their institution's entire collection via a single front end, which can be accessed from computers or via apps for iTunes or Android devices.

Fast Search

In the review, our researcher, Sophie Alexander, explains how it works. "It's achieved by harvesting metadata from both internal (library) and external (database vendors) sources, and creating a pre-indexed service. This allows for exceptionally fast search response times and more relevant results," she writes.

The content sources you can search are many and varied. They include "hundreds of millions of records from hundreds of thousands of journals, magazines, books and other content sources from thousands publishers and other providers," writes Sophie.

Secure Access

This not only saves time by removing the necessity to access a variety of sources, but provides a comforting level of security that can't be guaranteed on the web. Additional functions include filters that can restrict searches either to content in EBSCOhost full-text databases or content that's physically available on-site.

But does a "one stop shop" for information still make sense? Our director of research, Robin Neidorf, recently provided food for thought on this very topic on the Jinfo blog.

While EBSCO Discovery Service was Cargill's solution of choice, Unilever purchased a competitor product: Ex Libris Primo. Ex Libris was acquired in late 2015 by another competitor, ProQuest, which has its own discovery service in the form of Summon. We'll be bringing you a full product review of ProQuest Summon in March.

Find Out More

As for EBSCO Discovery Service, it was one of the first solutions of its kind when it launched 2010. Although it may be too expensive for small businesses, Sophie reports that it's the "ideal platform for larger information-intensive companies."

Jinfo Subscribers will find details on all of EBSCO Discovery Service's content sources, functions and custom options by logging into our Product Review, which is available now.

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