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Charleston Southern Overhauls Library Search With New Tool

As part of an overhaul of its library database search, South Carolina’s Charleston Southern University is using a new custom tool, called DiscoverSearch, to give users greater control of their search parameters and the content they can find.

For the service, the university partnered with EBSCO, a company that helps develop search databases. The new features will help users search broadly and dive deep into the university’s collections, both the in print library catalog and its digital databases as well as materials available through inter-library loan.

“We love being able to limit the initial search to materials that are available to our users in print or electronic format, yet with an easy toggle we can search further for things which may also be available via interlibrary loan,” said Eileen Lutzow, the university’s systems librarian in a statement. “A single click then allows our students to either access the full text or generate an ILL request with most of the information filled in for them.”

Charleston Southern has also customized the main interface, and has incorporated a real time available checking feature and a link customization function that will allow librarians to show (or hide) links to services like the library catalog, interlibrary loan forms, and JSTOR based on search parameters.

About the Author

Stephen Noonoo is an education technology journalist based in Los Angeles. He is on Twitter @stephenoonoo.

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