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.

Pam Childers, the System & Web Librarian at Jackson Library, Indiana Wesleyan University, chose to collaborate with EBSCO FOLIO to enhance their integrated library system (ILS). This decision was motivated by the need for a flexible, open-source platform that could adapt to the evolving needs of the academic community. FOLIO's modular architecture and robust infrastructure effectively managed collections, circulation, and user interactions. Additionally, the partnership with EBSCO facilitated seamless integration and support, improving the overall experience for staff and patrons. This presentation will discuss the factors that influenced the decision, the implementation process, and the benefits realized, offering valuable insights for other libraries considering a similar transition.

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.

We are excited to present the new Business Searching Interface (BSI), a state-of-the-art platform designed to revolutionize business research. The BSI offers an intuitive and efficient way to explore a vast array of business content, including company profiles, industry information, country economic data, and market research. With its modern design and improved navigation, the BSI enhances the user experience by providing a visually appealing and user-friendly interface.

Key features of the BSI include:
• Discover Popular Topics: Clickable images of trending business topics that launch keyword searches.
• Explore Featured Content: Access to unique business content sets and popular publications.
• Company Profile Reports: A two-level drill-down experience for detailed company information.
• Country and Industry Reports: Comprehensive reports with multiple levels of detail.
• SWOT Analyses: Easy access to relevant SWOT analyses records.
• Featured Collections and Magazines: Notable business articles and popular magazines.
• Spotlight On: Highlights articles on trending topics.

Join us for a live demonstration of the BSI, showcasing its advanced features and how it can transform business research.

With changes in staffing, increasing complexity in workflows, and more demands on staff time, GOBI can help you with the day-to-day of your Library Technical Services. Using GOBI to streamline your Ordering process can enable automated acquisitions and brief records from GOBI into your Library Management System. A range of Cataloging Services, from basic to advanced, can help your catalogers have time to work on the rare materials, special collections, and donated items. Whilst many libraries are moving towards electronic materials, print materials are still necessary in many libraries. Customize your needs with GOBI’s Book Processing services. This session will enumerate the many areas GOBI can assist you in saving time and creating efficiencies for your Technical Services team.

FOLIO (If submitting for FOLIO, please note your session will likely be on the 3rd day of the User Group);

Join Zorislav Plantak from Andrews University as he shares comprehensive insights from James White Library's transformative journey with the FOLIO library management system, alongside key EBSCO services such as Panorama and Bibliograph. These tools have collectively redefined how the library manages resources, analyzes data, and supports scholarly research, positioning the institution at the forefront of library innovation. Drawing on a year of hands-on experience, Zorislav will explore the significant successes achieved, from improved workflows to enhanced user satisfaction, highlighting specific examples that have made a tangible impact. The discussion will also address the challenges encountered during this period, including technical hurdles, staff training, and user adoption, and how these obstacles were overcome. By examining the lessons learned through this implementation, attendees will gain valuable perspectives on effective strategies for navigating similar transitions in their own institutions. This presentation aims to provide practical takeaways, focusing on both the operational advancements and the areas where further growth is needed, making it an essential session for libraries pursuing modernization.

Join us for an in-depth session on navigating the key features and enhancements of the updated EBSCOhost user interface. Designed to ensure a smooth transition post-migration, this session will cover the most significant UI updates, including streamlined navigation, improved search functionality, and personalized tools to optimize research workflows. We’ll also highlight troubleshooting tips, support resources, and new customization options to help you maximize the platform's potential. The session will conclude with a live Q&A, providing an opportunity to address specific questions and concerns.

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.

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.

Research databases are both repositories of diverse forms of knowledge and instigators of knowledge production that require the community-driven, collaborative efforts of humans. Three panelists and a moderator will discuss how, with thoughtful cultivation and use, research databases can account for various practices of knowledge gathering, preservation, and creation. Case studies will include a classroom experiment in which students gather and then visualize metadata from the MLA International Bibliography (MLAIB) to identify patterns in and omissions from the scholarship, with an eye toward history and new directions for research. The goal is to develop critical literacies about power relations built into bibliographic classification and indexing, as well as generate ideas for restorative description. Drawing on experience developing databases of Indigenous texts and iconography, one panelist will consider Western versus Indigenous ways of knowing: What are some of the differences between Western and Indigenous ways of interrogating received knowledge, and how might a database serve and promote Indigenous ways of knowing? What community, cultural, linguistic sensitivities, and other factors and etiquette need to be considered when building a database that serves Indigenous ways of knowing? Throughout, panelists will reflect on how the MLAIB bolsters community in the work that they do.

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.

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.

This session will guide you through the basics and explore trends in Transformative Agreements (TAs), including how they aim to transition traditional subscription models to open access and their implications for libraries. We will discuss their role in advancing open scholarship, the challenges they pose in terms of budgeting and administration, and how libraries can strategically assess their value. Following this, we’ll introduce the features of our innovative Read and Publish Dashboards. These dashboards integrate serials management with SaaS, providing actionable insights into your library’s data to help you make informed decisions about usage and expenditures. Whether your library is managing multiple Transformative Agreements or is just beginning to explore them, this session will deliver practical tools and insights to optimize your approach and make the most of these evolving models.