Overview
The National Children's Advocacy Center (NCAC) plays a crucial role in child advocacy, providing resources and support for legal professionals and advocates in child abuse cases. Their work directly affects thousands of children, local services and professionals locally and internationally. Through the Child Abuse Library Online (CALiO), NCAC offers authoritative resources related to child maltreatment. To further their mission, NCAC partnered with EBSCO to implement Stacks, a platform that integrates external and internal content sources, and OpenAthens for authentication services.
Challenges and Implementation
The project’s largest challenge was that NCAC was unable to deliver a seamless user experience that allowed access to library resources by the public and a controlled population. The Child Abuse Library Online (CALiO) contains resources that are open and proprietary content that requires authentication. Despite these hurdles, the implementation was completed in less than six months, showcasing the commitment of both NCAC and EBSCO to the project's success.
Sarah, Maria, and Katie (and the others on the Stacks team) — thank you for the intense amount of work, all high quality, to bring CALiO Next Gen to life in what seemed to me as a blink of an eye.
Sarah, Maria, and Katie (and the others on the Stacks team) — thank you for the intense amount of work, all high quality, to bring CALiO Next Gen to life in what seemed to me as a blink of an eye.
Benefits and Features
Stacks replaced NCAC's WordPress site, unifying content management and allowing customization of the interface and functionality. It empowered NCAC to showcase their content and other open resources, making authoritative information readily available to those who need it most. OpenAthens facilitated the authentication process, ensuring secure access to sensitive content while maintaining openness for public resources.
Outcome
The collaboration between NCAC and EBSCO through Stacks and OpenAthens has been a testament to the power of technology in supporting non-profit organizations. The successful deployment of these services has not only streamlined NCAC's operations but also reinforced their ability to advocate for children effectively. Their goal was accomplished through Stacks and OpenAthens to ensure open access for public content and secure access for proprietary content, while creating an engaging user experience.
On behalf of the CALiO team, Training/Technical Assistance for Child Abuse Professionals Project, and the National Children’s Advocacy Center, thank you for making CALiO Next Gen—now, simply back to CALiO—a beautiful reality. I’ve been exploring the new site and have been positively overwhelmed with the fresh, streamlined, and “current” design and aesthetic, not to mention features and functionality.
On behalf of the CALiO team, Training/Technical Assistance for Child Abuse Professionals Project, and the National Children’s Advocacy Center, thank you for making CALiO Next Gen—now, simply back to CALiO—a beautiful reality. I’ve been exploring the new site and have been positively overwhelmed with the fresh, streamlined, and “current” design and aesthetic, not to mention features and functionality.
Conclusion
The case of NCAC and EBSCO is a prime example of how tailored software-as-a-service solutions can advance the mission of advocacy organizations. The flexibility and configurability of Stacks, coupled with the robust authentication provided by OpenAthens, has set a new standard for content management and access in the non-profit sector.