2025 EBSCO User Group

Total Duration: 3 hours
Time: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Description:
This pre-conference workshop aims to provide insights into how EBSCO is using AI to enhance library services, from traditional search functionalities and to reimagining user engagement. Participants will engage in collaborative discussions to identify and refine real-word AI use cases, refine best practices and learn how AI can help in evaluating content for relevance and quality. The workshop will also explore the role of conversational AI and AI-enhanced literature reviews in deepening user engagement with content.
EBSCO Presenters:

• Mike Napoleone, Vice President Product Management
• David Brickner, Principal Research Strategist
• Ashleigh Faith, Director Product Management

Learning Objectives:

1. Gain insights into how EBSCO is responsibly using AI to reshape library services, from traditional search functionalities to advanced knowledge exploration, empowering libraries to meet evolving user expectations for faster, more intuitive access to trusted information.
2. Collaboratively identify and refine AI use cases and best practices from peers and experts that can enhance both front-end user experiences and back-end operational efficiency in your library, positioning your institution at the forefront of innovation.
3. Learn how AI can assist users in quickly evaluating content for relevance and quality by going beyond traditional metadata and abstracts, fostering stronger information literacy skills in an AI-driven environment.
4. Discover how conversational AI, chat interfaces, and AI-enhanced literature reviews can deepen user engagement with content, helping users make cross-content connections and enabling your library to play a central role in personalized research journeys.
5. Discover how using AI can enhance catalog records, identify collection needs and assist with uncovering insights using analytics.

Agenda:

• Introduction and Overview of EBSCO AI
• Breakout Session 1: Best Practices and Use Cases for AI in Libraries
• Breakout Session 2: Non-User AI Use Cases and Emerging Trends
• Collaborative Planning: AI Integration in Libraries
• Conclusion and Next Steps

Total Duration: 3 hours
Time: 9:00 AM- 12:00 PM
Description:
This session will provide insight into a variety of areas around EBSCO’s New User Interface. It will include background on how EBSCO’s User Research and Design Team incorporates qualitative and quantitative user feedback into product choices. The session will provide a hands-on element to ensure New UI is best optimized for your institution. This includes configuring authentication options to ensure successful access; doing a small health check on content and settings; and discussion around future enhancements. Finally, the session will share best practices for pulling and interpreting usage reports – both EBSCO and COUNTER generated – and how to measure usage from a numerical and value-driven standpoint.
EBSCO Presenters:

• Bonnie Leavitt, VP Product Management
• Amanda Ferrante, Principal Product Manager
• Ryan Walter, Principal User Researcher

Learning Objectives:

1. Understanding of what settings and customizations can be applied to the New UI to have the most optimized user experience
2.  Review standardized usage reports and learn how to understand quantitative usage (sessions, retrievals, etc.) and how those apply to New UI.
3. Examine your institution’s authentication and access settings to ensure end users can reliably successfully access EBSCO interfaces from your library’s portal as well as from the open web.
4. Gain insight into how EBSCO strives to build a platform that can cater to researchers of all backgrounds and skills.

Agenda:

• Introductions
• How EBSCO built New UI – discussion with EBSCO User Research about how the research and design best practices were leverages when building the New UI.
• Getting users in – hands on review of best practices around configuring authentication. Review of how to optimize Find My Organization settings along with other options for getting users to EBSCO content from the open web.
• Setting up New UI – review of EBSCOadmin and EBSCO Configuration portals and how they are used to customize New UI.
• Usage – tips and tricks for pulling and interpreting usage reports, how to measure meaningful usage, Counter 5.1 updates.

Participants will explore essential EBSCO tools and resources to develop, enhance, manage, and promote their library’s book collections. The session covers recent features and functionality supporting collection development through GOBI and Mosaic, and eBook Management through ECM (EBSCOhost Collection Manager). Attendees will gain hands-on experience with Mosaic, a new book acquisition solution, and learn about its current and upcoming features.
EBSCO Presenters:

• Caroline Zappasodi, Vice President of Product Management
• Bethany Pelletier, Director of Product Management
• Emma Waecker, Director of Product Management
• Julie Twomey, Senior Marketing Manager

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the functionalities of GOBI, ECM, and Mosaic for building and managing library print book and e-book collections.
2. Gain proficiency in using eBook Manager for managing EBSCO eBooks collections.
3. Explore available EBSCO resources to improve user experience and boost usage.

Agenda:

• Introduction
  • Welcome, introductions, session overview, and learning objectives.
• Building and Enhancing a Collection
  • Introduction to GOBI, finding eCollections and EBA options, benefits of Spotlight Lists, standard search, approval plans, awards, and faculty authors. Hands-on practice with GOBI exercises (optional).
• EBSCOhost Collection Manager (ECM)
  • Introduction to ECM, DDA management, automatic upgrades, browsing EBSCO eBook collections for purchase, and integration with eBook manager.
• Break (15 minutes)
• Mosaic
  • Introduction to Mosaic, utilizing it for efficient collection development, current and forthcoming functionality. Hands-on practice with Mosaic (optional).
• Managing EBSCO eBooks Collections with EBSCO eBook Manager
  • Introduction to eBook Manager, review of functionality, training resources, and how to stay updated.
• Break (15 minutes)
• Open Forum/Help Desk:
  • Open time for questions about GOBI/ECM/Mosaic/eBook Manager.
• Driving Usage with EBSCO Marketing Resources
  • Finding EBSCO marketing tools and resources, strategies to promote collections and drive usage.
• Improving Skills with EBSCO Connect
  • Introduction to EBSCO Connect, available resources, video tutorials, user guides, and notification groups.
• Wrap-up
  • Q&A session, key takeaways, and next steps.

Resources needed: Laptop

Total Duration: 7 hours (1 hour lunch break included)
Time: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Description:
EBSCO Discovery Service and Full Text Finder play an integral role in providing discovery and access for your library resources. Join EBSCO trainers, Jaime Barrilleaux and Lisa Jones, and SaaS Manager Don Brown, as they guide you through a health check of these systems, emphasizing key areas that you need to maintain as an administrator.
This workshop is targeted toward existing EBSCO Discovery Service and Full Text Finder subscribers and focuses on system administration and maintenance.
Full Text Finder plays a vital role in the discovery and access of your full-text resources. We will review how to manage your collection in Holdings Management, how to test and review your access through the links powered by Holdings Management, and how to optimize the search experience through Publication Finder.
For Full Text Finder, we will review how to create, maintain, and evaluate your holdings in Holdings Management. We will review options for configuring Publication Finder. We will also review how to maintain your Full Text Finder links, including where to check link behavior and settings.
The health of your EBSCO Discovery Service, and the services it integrates with, is vital to the discovery of your resources. We will review key areas of control and maintenance in EBSCOadmin and EBSCO Experience Manager to ensure your software is optimized.
For EBSCO Discovery Service, we will review search options, metadata, and linking choices.  We will also explore the EBSCO configuration module within EBSCO Experience Manager to learn about interface customizations and integration options.
EBSCO Presenters:

• Lisa Jones, Senior Customer Training Specialist
• Jaime Barrilleaux, Senior Customer Training Specialist
• Don Brown, SaaS Manager

Learning Objectives:

1. Configure authentication options.
2. Manage and update collections in Holdings Management.
3. Optimize search experience for Publication Finder and EDS.
4. Configure settings for FTF link resolver.
5. Review and configure EDS search options and results page linking options.
6. Optimize EDS for branding, navigation, and integrations.
7. Manage searchable metadata including catalog/institutional repository, EBSCO databases, and partner metadata.

Resources needed: Laptop

In 2020, the University of Texas System announced the consolidation of UT Tyler with the UT Health Science Center Tyler into a single institution that included the merging of the campus identity system and moving away from a self-hosted EZ Proxy instance. Despite the unified vision to "Rise as One," we maintained two distinct libraries to serve the academic and health campuses of the newly combined UT Tyler. This decision presented challenges in user authentication and access management. In this session, we will discuss how we implemented and continue to manage OpenAthens to address these challenges, ensuring seamless and secure access to library resources to our diverse user populations.

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.

This presentation explores how one academic library serving an entirely online university executed a deep overhaul of its online infrastructure while navigating an unexpected medical crisis.

The institution made three major changes on the same day by implementing the new EBSCO Discovery Service, transitioning to the OpenAthens authentication system, and launching a redesigned website. The discussion reviews the thought processes and decisions behind combining these migrations, including resource allocation, risk assessment, and timeline management explained, as well as communicating with key stakeholders, managing expectations, and testing so, so very many links.

The presentation also addresses crisis management when the project lead, the presenter, was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy two days before launch. Learn what happened, what to prepare for with your own migrations and projects, and how to make sure you can expect the unexpected. The impact of the changes after one year will also be discussed.

This presentation offers valuable insights for library professionals planning EBSCO Discovery Service and OpenAthens migrations, or similar system migrations and changes.

At the end of the pandemic, Thompson Rivers University Library discovered that some of the temporary processes we developed during the interim were not just beneficial, but also invaluable. For instance, we found that the EDS system modifications, initially used for touchless delivery, continued to add significant value for holds and after-hours pick-ups. The pandemic encouraged us to concentrate on and evaluate core library functions. Similarly, we used critical evaluation of our processes to inform our migration to Folio.
We will discuss:
How we are simplifying its circulation system by reducing the number of item types, loan rules, and patron types.
Why we will be selective in our use of new patron empowerment features in the EDS.
Why a system migration is an excellent opportunity to streamline library processes and to examine what a library can do.
Why examining fines and loan periods before the migration is essential during the migration. Addressing complex or difficult questions before the upgrade allows you to spend more time training staff and fine-tuning the configuration during the migration.

Overview: This session is focused on sharing the outcomes of the OpenAthens product UX review. This session will provide librarians with detailed insights into the review process, key findings, and the implications for future product development.

Session Highlights:

OpenAthens UX review findings: A comprehensive presentation of the findings from our recent UX review of the OpenAthens system, highlighting areas of success and opportunities for enhancement.

Discussion on next steps: An interactive discussion on the proposed next steps based on the review findings, encouraging feedback and suggestions from librarians.

Potential improvements: Exploration of potential improvements and how they can be implemented to better meet user needs and enhance overall user experience.

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.

Despite steady enrollment, declining funding and inflationary pressure forced reductions to journals supporting Millersville University’s Nursing Program. Utilizing the CINAHL database on EBSCOhost as the user point of entry, a CustomLink was created to facilitate real-time user access to articles from specific non-renewed journals directly from article records during user search. Articles from lower use, now not available, journal titles are available for fee via the Article Galaxy Scholar (AGS) service in real-time. Utilizing user attributes conveyed to OpenAthens (OA), those attributes are transformed in OA and mapped for use by AGS to provide library scoped purchase opportunities by specific user, journal title, number of requests from the journal title, or article year of publication, to facilitate real-time access via Article Galaxy Scholar. Non-Nursing program users not eligible for this service are seamlessly re-routed and provided access to more traditional requesting mechanisms should they attempt to make use of the document delivery service intended for Nursing program students and faculty. This approach can be applied to other user / program combinations as curricular need or budget warrant and could influence resource renewals.