Slovenian University Powers Library Search with EBSCO
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 07/06/11
The National and University Library of Slovenia has adopted EBSCO's Discovery Service (EDS) to bring together all of its library resources into a single, searchable catalog. The service creates a unified, customized index of an institution's information collection and provides a single search box to access resources.
In 2010 the library agreed to beta test the service; but according to Srecko Boncina, head of the Information Center, within a few weeks the library realized that EDS provided an excellent search experience. "Our users are excited about the simplicity and power of searching as well as the clear and native language interface providing a multitude of useful functionalities," Boncina said. "We have also completely customized our EDS interface."
The library was already using a number of EBSCO databases as well as EBSCOhost Integrated Search, which extends search to external resources not made available for local harvesting.
The foundation of EDS is a base index from which an EBSCO customer builds out its custom collection. The EDS Base Index consists of metadata from about 20,000 information providers and 70,000 book publishers. According to the company, that represents a collection of 50,000 magazines and journals, 825,000 CDs and DVDs, 6 million books, 100 million newspaper articles, 400,000 conference proceedings, and additional information sources. Beginning with that base index, the institutional customer adds its own catalog, repositories, and other databases.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.