2025 EBSCO User Group

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.

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.

How does a consortium of 60+ libraries based on a shared ILS platform and a resource sharing system handle disruptive change? Perhaps more importantly, why would you do this in the first place? In many ways it is like turning a battleship. Also, many of these new and essential products are either in development (Locate and OpenRS) or are architecturally new (FOLIO ECS) so providing feedback and testing is all part of the mix. Large, diverse, and geographically dispersed, how do you help lead your membership on his new adventure, so they engage with you throughout the process, so they feel like they have an ownership interest in its success? Come and learn from us on what went right, what went wrong, and what we would do differently during our 2-year odyssey into the brave, new world of open-source software.