Overview
Located in Umlazi, South Africa, Mangosuthu University of Technology is a higher education institution specializing in engineering, management and the natural sciences. The university aims to provide students with career-oriented skills through a combination of theoretical knowledge and practical experience in the work place.
To support the research needs of the institution’s 15,000 students and faculty members, the library maintains a robust collection of more than one million items, including two EBSCO eBooks™ collections: the eBook Academic Collection and the eBook Business Collection. In addition, to create a single access point for all its print and electronic resources, the library also subscribes to EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS).
E-books make it easier for students to access books from the comfort of their homes. Our first-year students [enjoy] being able to have e-books on their devices.
E-books make it easier for students to access books from the comfort of their homes. Our first-year students [enjoy] being able to have e-books on their devices.
EBSCO eBooks
Since Mangosuthu University of Technology implemented the Blackboard LMS, the library has aimed to more tightly integrate itself with the e-learning environment. To better support remote students, the library purchased two EBSCO eBooks™ collections — the eBook Academic Collection, which covers a broad range of multidisciplinary subjects, and the eBook Business Collection. Combined, these collections contain more than 187,000 titles to support student and faculty research.
“E-books make it easier for students to access books from the comfort of their homes,” said E-Resource Librarian Patricia Badenhorst. “Our first-year students [enjoy] being able to have e-books on their devices.”
Key EBSCO eBooks include Project Quality Management; Construction Management in Perspective; Contemporary Issues, Ideas and Initiatives; Environmental Health Perspectives; Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management; and Solar Energy Conversion and Storage: Photochemical Modes. These texts contain valuable research by subject-matter experts. Lecturers can easily add permalinks to these and other EBSCO eBooks right from their recommended reading lists in Blackboard. Since both subscription collections offer unlimited simultaneous user access, students never experience turnaways or holds for titles in high demand.
“The e-book content supports both our undergraduates as well as postgraduates in their different research needs,” Badenhorst said. “Our undergraduates are very pleased to have electronic access to some of the textbooks recommended by their lecturers.”
EBSCO Discovery Service
According to Badenhorst, the Mangosuthu University of Technology Library purchased EBSCO Discovery Service to provide researchers with a “one-stop” shop where they could find “all the resources they need in one go.”
Since the library was looking to update its website, Badenhorst said, the timing of their EDS trial was fortuitous.
“We already had a good relationship with EBSCO and had been using many of their products; therefore, we trusted them,” she explained, adding that the trial was a success. “The level of customer service provided is exceptional. EBSCO was very eager to assist and implement any improvement that we required. Even though we are a small institution, EBSCO values us. That is what I appreciate the most.”
Users can quickly access the library collection by selecting the Library Services link on the Mangosuthu University of Technology website’s home page. The library uses the EDS home screen as its landing page. A custom search box appears at the top, and students can select the Discovery tab to search all resources at once, or one of three other tabs — Catalogue, eBooks or Databases — to narrow their searches to specific collections. The library leveraged both top and bottom branding options. The institution’s logo displays in the top banner, and links to the Blackboard LMS and other important web pages are included for staff and students.
Since launching EDS, the library has experienced a steady increase in the use of its resources. In 2017, the number of search sessions increased approximately 30 percent over the previous year. The number of full-text downloads increased by 50 percent. Additionally, the number of EBSCO eBooks downloaded in the first six months of 2017 was nearly as high as the total number downloaded in 2016.
“EDS has had a great impact,” Badenhorst said. “Our users really appreciate the product and find it useful and user-friendly.”