EBSCO Publishing
Increasing value and usage of information resources through Discovery Sam Brooks, Executive Vice President, EBSCO Publishing Discovery is evolving from simply being a faster and easier way to search a library’s collection through a single search box, to a search that is able to access the highestquality information available in a library’s collection for all levels of users. Discovery that can maximise the available content can increase usage, improve the end-user experience and showcase the value of a library’s collection. User adoption of a discovery tool can increase as users become more familiar with it, but if that tool produces better results, adoption will take place rapidly. An example of this is the data collected by Bournemouth University, which implemented EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) in September of 2010. User sessions increased by 88 percent from the 2010-11 academic year to the 2011-12 academic year. The success of those sessions is indicated by a 132 percent increase in the combined number of abstracts viewed, full-text downloads through EDS and linkouts to full-text from EDS. Additionally, there was a similar increase in linking to the library’s catalogue (88 percent). See Table 1.
Successful searches demonstrate the benefits of shifting from directly searching databases to relying on the discovery service, which can expose them to resources that they may otherwise not find. At Bournemouth, use of the most prevalent full-text databases, either through direct access or through EDS, increased by 40 percent from 2010-11 to 2011-12. Full-text downloads from direct databases decreased from 2010-11 to 2011-12 by more than 23 percent, while full-text downloads from EDS increased more than 104 percent over the same time period, showing an increase in usage of the resources as well as the value of the Discovery Service tool overall. The increase for some databases was even more pronounced. For example, full-text downloads from the university’s primary business database accessed through EDS increased by 139 percent from 2010-11 to 2011-12. See Table 2.
In the second year of EDS use at Bournemouth, there was a 1362 percent increase in JSTOR linking and 357 percent increase in ScienceDirect linking. Because EDS allows for the infusion of high-end subject indexes, the statistics related to use of these critical resources can be illuminating. For example, usage records
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Panlibus Magazine | Winter 2012 | www.capita.co.uk/libraries
from A&I service CAB Abstracts increased by 81 percent from 2010-11 to 2011-12.* See Table 3.
[*Note: Because Bournemouth subscribes to CAB Abstracts on EBSCOhost, the University takes advantage of the EDS “platform blending” technology, which allows for infusion of results from subject indexes that don’t otherwise participate in discovery services.] EDS implementation at Bournemouth and other academic institutions has been successful because it caters to the needs of undergraduates, graduates, postgraduates and faculty. While familiarity with the system and the ease of the single search box has an impact on overall usage, the increased downloads and linking activity indicates that the quality of the searches has also improved significantly. The single search box, with the metadata and robust ability to find the best available content behind it, have to work in combination to improve the user experience and ensure that they are confident in the tool they are using.
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