2025 EBSCO User Group: Full Schedule

EBSCO User Group 2025

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10:30am EDT

What is UX design and why is it important?

Wednesday April 30, 2025 10:30am - 11:20am EDT

This talk will introduce the audience to EBSCO’s User Experience (UX) Design Team and explore the iterative design process we use. We’ll talk about the personas we design for and how we use research to inform design decisions. We will also explain some UX best practices and demonstrate how we’ve incorporated those principles into our user interfaces. Finally, we’ll discuss accessibility guidelines and our commitment to making our products more accessible for all.

Speakers

Caitlin Shoreman

David Oliva

Wendee Fiorillo

Wednesday April 30, 2025 10:30am - 11:20am EDT
Ballroom D | Ocean 1 Sabin St, Providence, RI 02903, USA

Track 1 | Ocean, UX/UI/Online Presence

Audience Novice
Product UX Design
Sub-Topic UX Design

10:30am EDT

Proposal for Advancing Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) in Library Collections within the EBSCO User Group at an HBCU

Wednesday April 30, 2025 10:30am - 11:20am EDT

555 & 556 | Seahorse

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) play a vital role in educating and empowering Black and ethnic students and fostering a diverse and inclusive learning environment. To ensure their continued success, HBCU libraries must select collections that reflect the diverse experiences and knowledge of the HBCU communities. However, ensuring library collections reflect this commitment to DEI requires ongoing assessment and strategic development. This proposal outlines a plan to leverage EBSCO subscriptions and resources to enhance the library’s collection in support of DEI initiatives at Tennessee State University. While TSU library possesses a robust collection, there may be gaps in representing diverse voices and perspectives. By strategically leveraging EBSCO resources, the TSU library can significantly enhance its collection to better reflect the institution’s commitment to DEI. This will empower students and faculty with the informational resources they need to excel academically and become well-informed global citizens.

Speakers

Vanessa Jones

Technical Services Librarian, Tennessee State University

Wednesday April 30, 2025 10:30am - 11:20am EDT
555 & 556 | Seahorse 1 Sabin St, Providence, RI 02903, USA

Track 2 | Seahorse, Collection Development

Audience Novice
Product EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), Databases (eHost/Research Databases)
Sub-Topic Diversity/Equity/Inclusion

11:30am EDT

Updates to EBSCO's Configuration Applications

Wednesday April 30, 2025 11:30am - 12:20pm EDT

Ballroom B | Coral

EBSCO Experience Manager (EEM) is EBSCO's portal for Administrative applications. We'll use Single Sign-on to access our ConfigUI application and then will tour the highlights of that application. You'll view the benefits that the ConfigUI offers administrators who wish to self-service their configuration settings. We'll also touch upon our strategy for future development in the configuration space.

Speakers

Michael Bucco

Wednesday April 30, 2025 11:30am - 12:20pm EDT
Ballroom B | Coral 1 Sabin St, Providence, RI 02903, USA

Track 3 | Coral, Technology & Trends

Audience Novice
Product EBSCO Configuration
Sub-Topic Configurations and Settings

11:30am EDT

The SaaS Implementation Playbook: Strategies for Success

Wednesday April 30, 2025 11:30am - 12:20pm EDT

554 | Achor

Implementing new software as a service platforms take time and effort. This session will review best practices, tips, and general advice on how to work with our implementation team for the best outcome for your institution. We will share thoughts on how best to prepare for the project, general tools and workflows used, pitfalls to avoid, and other general ways in which to optimally stand up the product purchased. Products to be reviewed will include EBSCO Discovery Service, Full Text Finder, Custom Catalogs, Stacks, OpenAthens, and more.

Speakers

Beth Pifalo

Adam Walsh

Wednesday April 30, 2025 11:30am - 12:20pm EDT
554 | Achor 1 Sabin St, Providence, RI 02903, USA

Track 4 | Anchor, Change Management

Audience Novice
Product EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), OpenAthens, Stacks
Sub-Topic Tips and Tricks

2:20pm EDT

Using Linked Data to improve student researcher experiences on EBSCO Discovery Service and EBSCOhost

Wednesday April 30, 2025 2:20pm - 3:10pm EDT

Ballroom D | Ocean

Go behind the scenes with EBSCO Product Managers as they delve into the integration of Linked Data into EBSCO Discovery Service and EBSCOhost to transform research experiences. This session will cover the infrastructure enabling Linked Data, including the new EBSCO Scholarly Graph platform, and the new product features that are enabled through this new infrastructure. Attendees will also learn how EBSCO incorporates user research to discover, validate, and refine new features to improve the user journey on EBSCO platforms.

Speakers

Nathanael Lee

Gloria Gonzalez

Wednesday April 30, 2025 2:20pm - 3:10pm EDT
Ballroom D | Ocean 1 Sabin St, Providence, RI 02903, USA

Track 1 | Ocean, UX/UI/Online Presence

Audience Novice
Product EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), Databases (eHost/Research Databases)
Sub-Topic User Journey, New UI Innovation

3:20pm EDT

Ideation to iteration: a partnered approach to communicating and progressing product roadmaps

Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:20pm - 4:10pm EDT

Ballroom D | Ocean

As research habits and needs evolve over time, our community increasingly focuses on the performance and functionality of software products and integrations used by libraries. Roadmaps can be used as tools to plan, prepare, align and communicate; vendors and publishers balance their development resources between technical debt and innovation, frequently informed by input from their customer base.
New, more flexible products allow for libraries and research organizations to implement bespoke experiences, sometimes with their own in-house development expertise. In both scenarios, building the “product roadmap” offers an opportunity for product managers to connect with their users and vice versa. However, gaps in this critical feedback loop can result in ambiguous expectations and a lack of clear communication.
In this panel session, presenters will share their experiences recommendations for building a partnered approach to roadmap development. The audience will hear perspectives from library practitioners, consortium development managers and platform product managers, offering a lively discussion of product roadmaps in both the vendor-owned and open source space.

Speakers

Amanda Ferrante

Principal Product Manager, EBSCO

Amanda Ferrante is Principal Product Manager for Identity & Access Management for EBSCO Information Services, focusing on removing barriers to access for researchers and supporting ease of administration for librarians. Her work is informed by the library community’s needs related... Read More →

Russell Palmer

Jesse Koennecke

Director, Acquisitions & E-Resource Licensing, Cornell University

Jesse is responsible for managing Acquisitions and E-Resource Licensing services for Cornell University Library (CUL). Jesse has been involved with the Future of Libraries Is Open project to develop open source software for libraries since 2016 Ask me about Battledecks@ER&L!Ask... Read More →

Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:20pm - 4:10pm EDT
Ballroom D | Ocean 1 Sabin St, Providence, RI 02903, USA

Track 1 | Ocean, Library Services

Audience Novice
Product Product Roadmaps
Sub-Topic Library Vendor Collaboration, Product Roadmaps

3:20pm EDT

Strategies for Ensuring Access to Electronic Resources from HLM MARC Records

Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:20pm - 4:10pm EDT

Ballroom B | Coral

The importance of discovery is often brought up in academic settings, but ensuring access is just as vital for connecting patrons with materials. For resources from EBSCO’s Holdings & Links Management (HLM) record service, access takes the form of linking URLs. The details of these links are often dependent on the host, and access issues can arise in collections large and small. The number of links and potential problems scales upwards as an institution adds more collections to HLM. Manually testing URLs is a proactive method of ensuring access, as patrons finding a nonfunctional link may just move on to another resource instead of submitting a ticket and waiting for a resolution. This presentation is concerned with breaking down different types of access issues The University of Alabama has encountered and exploring tools used for more efficiently and precisely troubleshooting access problems in HLM records as well as the importance of communication with electronic resources personnel from a metadata perspective in addressing access problems and establishing more streamlined workflows.

Speakers

Taylor Smith

Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:20pm - 4:10pm EDT
Ballroom B | Coral 1 Sabin St, Providence, RI 02903, USA

Track 3 | Coral, UX/UI/Online Presence

Audience Novice
Product Holdings and Links Management, MARC Record Service
Sub-Topic Tips and Tricks