IPSWICH, Mass. — November 17, 2014 — Phillips Academy Andover, an independent, coeducational boarding high school that enrolls more than 1,100 students, has opted for EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) from EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) to provide students with a more streamlined search that can be customized to their needs.
In 2013, the Academy’s Oliver Wendell Holmes Library began to explore options for a better search experience for their students. They wanted a system that would include the library catalog and permit the exposure of all their subscription databases. Michael Blake, Associate Library Director says that students are able to discover more library resources with EDS. “EDS pulls together a variety of source types from our collection. Having access to multiple formats may make students search for films, audios and news reels, when they have traditionally only thought of print books, encyclopedias and journals.”
As part of the evaluation process for a discovery solution, the Library conducted extensive student user experience testing and according to Library Director Elisabeth Tully feedback about EDS was positive. “It was definitely instrumental in our decision [to purchase EDS] to see how enthusiastic the kids were. Student satisfaction is important to us. We are hoping to see increased use of the excellent resources that we’ve purchased for our students by making it easier for them to find those resources.”
Tully also adds that the survey elicited a variety of responses that are helping the Library to customize EDS to better meet students’ needs. EDS offers multiple customization options including widgets, subject profiles, branding and custom search boxes.
The mobile capabilities of EDS were an important factor for the Academy. According to Blake, the ability to conduct research on mobile devices was high on their priority list. “This is absolutely critical to the next generation of students. The students of today already are using their mobile devices to do all aspects of searching." EDS Mobile allows users to research on the go using EBSCO’s intuitive search features and functionality. It is designed for use on many handheld devices and has been optimized for most smartphones, including iPhone, Android, Blackberry and others.
The entire Phillips Andover customer success story can be read at: http://www.ebsco.com/success-stories/story/phillips-andover-academy.
EBSCO Discovery Service creates a unified, customized index of an institution’s information resources, and an easy, yet powerful means of accessing all of that content from a single search box-searching made even more powerful because of the quality of its relevance and value ranking technology.
About EBSCO Information Services
EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the leading discovery service provider for libraries worldwide with more than 6,000 discovery customers in over 100 countries. EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) provides each institution with a comprehensive, single search box for its entire collection, offering unparalleled relevance ranking quality and extensive customization. EBSCO is also the preeminent provider of online research content for libraries, including hundreds of research databases, historical archives, point-of-care medical reference, and corporate learning tools serving millions of end users at tens of thousands of institutions. EBSCO is the leading provider of electronic journals & books for libraries, with subscription management for more than 360,000 serials, including more than 57,000 e-journals, as well as online access to more than 650,000 e-books. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: www.ebsco.com. EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a family owned company since 1944.
###
For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Vice President of Communications
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebsco.com
