Customer Success Story

For busy medical students and doctors at India’s Army Hospital (Research and Referral) Dental College, the EBSCO Mobile app has streamlined access to scholarly research in Dental & Oral Sciences Source, one of the institution’s subscription databases. According to faculty member Dr. Harjeet Singh, the Dental College library is small compared with traditional university libraries and users rarely drop in to conduct on-site research.

“People are constantly moving from one place to other,” Dr. Singh explained. “Most of the time, doctors are busy visiting patients. They don’t have enough time to spend hours in the library looking for content. These factors make the EBSCO Mobile app a good alternative for our users.”

The built-in Find My Organization feature makes it easy for EBSCO Mobile app users to search for or geolocate their institution and sign in using the library's preferred authentication method. After the user has logged in for the first time, they don’t need to log in on subsequent sessions. In addition, cross-device synchronization means researchers can jump in and out of the research process, search for articles on the go, use sharing tools and save their articles concurrently across mobile and desktop.

“Device and location are no more a hindrance to using EBSCO resources,” Dr. Singh said, adding that users appreciate the ability to listen to the content they discover and download EBSCO eBooks to their devices to read offline later. “One can work with EBSCO content with limited connectivity while traveling or sitting in a public place.”

Dr. Rajendra K. Jain, Professor of Management and Dean of Research at Oriental University in  Madhya Pradesh (Indore), said the EBSCO Mobile app makes research a more portable activity. “It’s easier to carry a mobile phone with you,” he explained. “It motivates the researcher to get information online at any place without having to carry a laptop.”

Mrs. Nandi Nailwal, librarian at Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management in New Delhi agreed, stating, “The EBSCO Mobile app is a game changer.” This year, the library has seen a significant increase in use of Business Source Complete. Full-text downloads are more than 50 percent higher than those recorded in 2020. Nailwal attributes the increase to EBSCO Mobile. “Our users can now read, listen to and share articles anytime, anywhere,” she said.

This ubiquitous access to library resources has also made the EBSCO Mobile app popular among students at Shoolini University, a top-ranked research university for bioengineering and management sciences. According to Dr. Sourabh Kulshreshtha, Dean of Research and Development, the app has proven especially vital during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have a large number of students who’ve been stuck in their native states and homes during the pandemic,” Dr. Kulshreshtha said. “EBSCO Mobile has helped our students in accessing EBSCO content during tough times. Moreover, access to library content while travelling is another advantage for them.” Instead of “killing time” on their smartphones, he said, students can download research content.

Shoolini University’s Yoga Nanda Library subscribes to the STM Source database and the EBSCO eBooks Academic Collection. Both collections have experienced increased use in 2021. Full-text article downloads from STM Source increased 85 percent over 2020, while downloads of EBSCO eBooks increased 76 percent. To promote EBSCO Mobile, librarians ensure that every student who comes into the library has installed the app on their smartphone.

Fatima College Librarian Dr. C. Sujatha said the EBSCO Mobile app is helping library users save money by not having to purchase books for their courses. In addition, quick and easy access to online resources means there is less pressure on the library to keep multiple copies of print books on the shelves.

“This service helps us fulfill the fourth law of library science, which is to save the time of the reader,” Dr. Sujatha said.