2025 EBSCO User Group

The TERMS framework, developed by Jill Emery, Graham Stone, and Peter McCracken, postulates that e-resource resource management follows a recurring lifecycle, from evaluation to licensing to acquisitions to activation and access to discovery to management back to analysis and evaluation. This presentation intends to showcase how EBSCO's suite of products represents and enables the TERMS cycle for libraries. Attendees will leave with a better high level understanding of how EBSCO's products from GOBI to FOLIO integrate together and create a cohesive e-resource ecosystem.

This presentation will introduce EBSCO’s core accessibility team and talk and walk through EBSCO’s New UI. Built in accessibility features will be covered as well as a screen reader demonstration. We’ll talk about EBSCO’s approach to accessibility, testing and creating accessible products.

Join two of our software team to learn about a variety of tools to help increase user engagement with content and drive usage of the library. This session will include a review of several free tools, as well as where to find instructions and help in implementing them. Upon completion the library should have a list of options to consider, at no charge, that will help increase access to content.

Linked data is at the forefront of EBSCO’s efforts to enhance information discoverability and interoperability, benefiting libraries and their communities. Our research services employ linked data, with ongoing efforts to expand its use.

This session will cover linked data basics, EBSCO’s current applications, and future plans. Topics include improving discoverability, knowledge graph development, and the resulting benefits: increased user engagement, satisfaction, and industry recognition of EBSCO’s search capabilities.

EDS is incredibly powerful, but can sometimes feel overwhelming to students and other patrons. In this presentation Simon Ringsmuth, a Digital Services Librarian at Oklahoma State University, will demonstrate the process he has used to create a series of short, targeted, effective, and engaging videos to help patrons learn various aspects of EDS including basics such as keyword searching to advanced features like custom folder sharing and boolean operators. This collaborative video-creation process utilizes free tools for ideation and scripting, as well as off-the-shelf software like Final Cut Pro and Camtasia to handle editing and screen-captures. This process is also not limited to EDS: Librarians can use this process to create tutorial videos about all manner of software tools to help patrons learn to use them more effectively. While some technical knowledge is useful, it is not required and anyone can learn to use this process to create engaging, effective tutorial videos. To see the videos that this presentation is based on, visit bit.ly/OSU-EDS-Search-Videos.

Join us for an in-depth presentation on the enhancements and customizations we've implemented in the new Discovery UI, developed in collaboration with the expert support of our EBSCO Library Services engineer. Highlights include features like a 24/7 chat image, streamlined catalog integration, and custom labels tailored to user needs. We'll also share insights into our decision-making process, incorporating user feedback forms, in-house support documentation, and collaborative discussion methods such as Librarian Q&A sessions and faculty training. This session is ideal for those seeking practical strategies for improving user engagement and streamlining library services.

EBSCO Information Services has steadily grown from humble roots in the 1940’s to one of the largest global businesses focused on libraries. Marshall Breeding will conduct a tour of EBSCO through resources and data sources available on Library Technology Guides, highlighting its impressive history of business acquisitions and product development. EBSCO Industries is a diversified group of companies, including EBSCO Information Systems as its largest enterprise. Owned by the descendants of its founder, Eldon B. Stephens, EBSCO represents a distinctive ownership model that contrasts with other major industry players. The session will cover the trajectory of FOLIO, from its initial announcement in 2016 to a mature product selected by some of the world’s largest and most complex libraries and consortia. EBSCO’s support and investment in open source software is unprecedented in the industry, supporting a product strategy that blends FOLIO components with its own commercial components. This session will provide information and perspective about the factors that have led EBSCO Information Services to its strong position as a successful library vendor with products and services spanning content, discovery, and resource management.

This talk will summarize research conducted by EBSCO’s user research team on how generative AI tools like ChatGPT, SciSpace, and Semantic Scholar have shaped student research workflows. We will first take a deep-dive into the ways AI technology has (and hasn’t) shifted student mental models and expectations of research interfaces. We’ll give real-world examples from user interviews detailing how students integrate AI into various aspects of discovering, summarizing, and outlining research, as well as some of the areas where AI falls short of student needs. We’ll also discuss some of the most common barriers to student adoption of AI tools ranging from scholarly concerns over accuracy and information sources to institutional concerns over appropriate usage and academic integrity. Finally, we’ll discuss the ways these insights are guiding EBSCO’s user-centered approach to AI initiatives and what to expect from future development.

This session will cover discussion on current, expected and new options to Share (results, searches, alerts (Journal/search) and Cite information using available formats or various bibliographic managers / tools from Results List (non-personalized) and Dashboard (personalized) areas.

Join EBSCO senior product managers Heather White and Rachel Hally to learn about EBSCO’s Voice of the Customer (VOC) program and how we use data to make decisions about product development. First, Rachel will provide an overview of VOC and its evolution over the past two years into a multi-faceted program that incorporates customer feedback from numerous communication streams. Then Heather and Rachel will show us their own VOC workflows and explain how she used enhancement requests to make data-driven decisions about which features were the most important to support customers’ migration to the new UI.

Many libraries have just moved to the new EBSCO EDS interface, and some are still transitioning. This session will be a tour of the new EDS interface, including what's new, what has changed, and the reasons behind the update. This will also be a chance to ask questions.

In this session, learn how linked data connects information across interrelated library resources so they can be easily discovered in your collection. Linked data uses ontologies, which are essentially the linked data schema for how information is related to each other, to create these networks. Attendees will understand how EBSCO applies knowledge graph analytics through use cases. They will also understand how to leverage their own linked data to identify duplicate resources, if an author’s affiliation 

Open Educational Resources (OER) are vital for enhancing educational access and affordability. EBSCO's has taken great care in licensing OER content to help provide a comprehensive and reliable solution for institutions looking to support these efforts. By integrating EBSCO's OER content into your institution's curriculum, you can offer students and faculty access to high-quality, peer-reviewed educational materials at no cost. This not only reduces the financial burden on students but also promotes academic success by providing diverse and up-to-date resources. Additionally, EBSCO's platform offers advanced search capabilities, making it easy for educators to find and incorporate relevant OER materials into their courses. Supporting OER efforts with EBSCO's content aligns with the broader goals of educational equity and innovation, ensuring that all students have the resources they need to succeed. By adopting EBSCO's OER content, your institution can lead the way in creating a more inclusive and effective learning environment.