Overview
Ashford University is the largest educational holding of Bridgepoint Education, a higher education organization which acquired the former Mount St. Clare College in 2005. Since then, the number of students attending Ashford has grown exponentially, with 70,866 students enrolled in online degree programs in business, education, liberal arts, health, human services, and science. Although Ashford University has a campus in Clinton, Iowa, most of its students are distance learners who take one online course at a time. With a collection of more than 51,000 electronic journals, nearly 102,000 eBooks, and 73 databases, the institution’s library needed a robust research platform that would simplify the discovery process and cater to its online student population. In July of 2013, Ashford University implemented EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), which provides a unified index of the library's resources and a single search experience. Since the introduction of “FindIt@AU” – Ashford’s name for EDS – students are becoming less intimidated by the research process.
We are certainly glad we committed to EDS. It’s a whole new world for our students. It has made them a lot more comfortable in the library space.
We are certainly glad we committed to EDS. It’s a whole new world for our students. It has made them a lot more comfortable in the library space.
Challenges
Prior to EDS, users would search Ashford University’s electronic databases individually via the library web site. According to Elizabeth Grossman, Director of Distance Learning Library Services, this approach was confusing to students, many of whom are adult learners with limited information literacy skills.
"The courses here are very short; undergraduate courses are only five weeks," Grossman explained. "Our students don’t have a lot of time to learn how to search in individual databases. They need a place they can go to quickly find articles on their topic. We knew they were heavy Google searchers, so we needed a platform where they could type in a keyword and search across a majority of the library collection in one fell swoop."
Michael Cendejas, Web Services and Technology Librarian, agreed. "For most of the students I came across, just the idea of a database is so foreign to them," he said. "Giving them an easier way to access information had to happen."
Solutions
So Grossman and Cendejas began looking at discovery services in early 2012. After evaluating EDS against another vendor’s discovery service, they decided to go with EBSCO’s product.
"Our students are heavy EBSCO users," Grossman said, adding that the interface was already familiar to them. "And, frankly, the customer service we receive from our EBSCO reps is fabulous. They are very supportive."
In addition, EDS would easily integrate Ashford’s subscriptions to EBSCO subject indexes, particularly PsycINFO®, the American Psychological Association’s comprehensive abstracting and indexing database that includes more than 3 million records dedicated to peer-reviewed literature in the mental health and behavioral sciences.
Also factoring into Ashford’s decision to select EDS was the availability of EBSCO SmartLinks+, a feature that allows EBSCO to triangulate the availability, ownership, and location of full text. When a library subscribes to e-journals via EBSCO and one or more research databases on the EBSCOhost platform, SmartLinks+ can be automatically enabled so that users have access to all of the library’s full-text content purchased from EBSCO.
"We find it extremely valuable," Grossman said. "The SmartLinks feature is so important to us since we subscribe to so many EBSCO [resources]."
Finally, Ashford was able to customize and brand EDS to create a seamless user experience. The Library home page prominently displays a tabbed search box that invites users to search the library’s databases and eBooks collections. The search box features the school’s purple and gold colors, as well as its Saint Bernard mascot, "Champ." Grossman and Cendejas contemplated naming EDS "Fetch," but they ultimately chose "FindIt@AU."
"We got a lot of help with designing the search box to put on our library homepage," Cendejas said. "[EBSCO Discovery Solutions Engineer Eric Frierson] helped us take an idea that we had – basically an image we created of what we wanted the search box to look like – and he made it work for us. That was a really big help."
A few weeks prior to the July 24, 2013, launch, Grossman sent out a teaser email to students and faculty announcing that FindIt@AU was coming. A week before launch, she sent out another email with a bit more information and a link to a three-minute video that highlighted the tool’s key features. Ashford has since created additional videos to guide students – specifically distance learners – on topics such as how to conduct searches, find eBooks, and limit search results.
For students attending the Clinton, Iowa, campus, FindIt@AU will be incorporated into the library’s information literacy curriculum. In the meantime, Grossman said, librarians are already introducing FindIt@AU during bibliographic instruction sessions and pointing students to the online video tutorials.
Benefits & Results
Although it is still too early to collect definitive usage statistics, Grossman and Cendejas are hopeful.
"We’ve received a lot of positive feedback from students regarding FindIt@AU, and we’ve just started documenting this feedback in writing," Grossman said.
Initial wall posts to the University’s Facebook page show that users are excited and grateful for the new library research tool. One user posted, "FindIt@AU – Like the Library better already!"
Grossman expects that, by helping students find the information they need for their assignments more quickly, EDS will reduce their fears of doing library research.
"We are certainly glad we committed to EDS," Grossman said. "It’s a whole new world for our students. It has made them a lot more comfortable in the library space."
To learn more about EBSCO Discovery Service, or to request a free trial, click here.