CCL-EAR COMMITTEE REVIEW EBSCO A-to-Z 2012

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1 CCL-EAR COMMITTEE REVIEW EBSCO A-to-Z 2012 This review examines EBSCO A-to-Z, an online serial locator tool that helps library staff and users find and keep track of full-text, electronic serial content across multiple providers and aggregators. It can also list other electronic content that may be available from a library, including ebooks, and can incorporate a subscriber s own print or microform holdings into the content knowledgebase. The focus of this review is on the depth, range, and formatting of the product s full-text online serials records, the user search interface, and related administrative features. RATINGS KEY: #1 --- Not recommended #2 --- Recommended with reservations as noted #3 --- Recommended #4 --- Outstanding offer OVERALL RECOMMENDATION for COMMUNITY COLLEGES: 3 The purpose of an A-to-Z title list is to help end users quickly identify serial resources (print or online) that a library offers. EBSCO A-to-Z is a cost-effective way to streamline access to aggregate databases from multiple providers, and is a workhorse tool that can help libraries maintain a significant measure of control over extensive and diverse content from various sources. RATINGS FOR SPECIFIC ASPECTS OF THE PRODUCTS: The following features were examined and rated on a four point scale (1=Poor; 2= Needs Improvement; 3=Good; 4=Excellent): PRODUCT CONTENT/FORMAT: 3 Consider functionality, appropriateness of format, database content, adequacy of coverage (retrospective, current), and value to the California Community Colleges as a whole. EBSCO A-to-Z includes listings for a library s owned or subscribed e-resources, such as individual e-journals, titles in library databases, and ebooks. It can also list a library s print titles and other resources (such as websites) that the library chooses to add. Librarians can use the administrative tools for advanced reporting functions (e.g., overlap analysis), or to customize the list for their library including branding the site to match the appearance of the library s other web-based services. EBSCO A-to-Z covers more than 725,000 unique titles, 4,500 databases/packages, and aggregated databases from over 650 vendors. It provides links to those vendors databases as well as the library s print serials holdings. Depending on the source and type of update, the list

2 is updated bi-weekly, weekly, or monthly. Databases include all titles that the provider identifies as being full-text, even if full-text coverage is incomplete. Custom lists of resources including web sites and print serials holdings can be uploaded by library staff or by EBSCO staff upon request, and any additions and changes appear immediately in the user search interface. SEARCH INTERFACE: 2 Consider functionality and ease of use of the interface. Is it intuitive or is an excessive amount of training required? Are any crucial features missing from the search interface? Figure 1. EBSCO A-to-Z search interface There are five tabs on the default search screen: Index, Titles, Subjects, Search and About This Site across the top of the main search screen (figure 1). The Index tab lists databases with live links to each database whereas the Titles tab lists journal titles alphabetically. There is an Advance search link within the Titles tab that brings the user to the same screen as the Search tab. The Subjects tab provides a drop-down menu of subjects with an approximation of titles in each subject in parenthesis at the end. The Search tab allows a user to search by title, publisher, ISSN and subject. The About This Site tab serves as an online contextual help where it shows a screen shot of the main screen and outlines what each tab does (figure 2). Tab names and content are customizable by the subscribing library. Figure 2. EBSCO A-to-Z About This Site page

3 Searching is not necessarily intuitive. If a user did not go to About This Site first, s/he may not know that the Index tab searches for a list of databases with a link to the database main page and a list of journals provided by that database, while the Titles tab searches for a list of journals only. Searching in Titles tab is set to default to keyword searching within a journal title. To find a journal efficiently, a user can search in the Search tab. S/he can search by title, publisher, ISSN or subject indicating whether it is a keyword search, exact wording, or the beginning of the title. Once a user finds the journal(s), s/he cannot print, save or the result list. The search algorithm is very rudimentary. Misspellings or other errors are not corrected by the program. For example, if users search for Bakersfield California they retrieve no results. The system returns the message Sorry, this search returns no results. However, if users search for Bakersfield California* they retrieve The Bakersfield Californian. Search results are presented alphabetically by journal title. Under each journal title is the database(s) that provides content to the journal, followed by the date of coverage (figure 3). Libraries can choose to display the subject headings pre-assigned to each journal title, a feature not available with all A to Z list services. Users then click on the database name to access the journal. For titles that include a library s proxy URL, users may be prompted to login to their college/library account before accessing the database. Users are then taken to the publication record for the title in the database, where they can access the journal full-text. Libraries with links to their local catalog will connect into the title-level catalog record. Figure 3. EBSCO A-to-Z results screen Libraries that also subscribe to EBSCO LinkSource may customize A to Z article-level results screens that originate from database openurl connections to include links to their interlibrary loan service for items not available full-text (Figure 4).

4 Figure 4. Custom link to library s ILL service AVAILABILITY/ACCESSIBILITY OF: 3 Is access/connection to product reliable and stable? Is response time adequate? Is product accessible to users with disabilities? Access to EBSCO A-to-Z list is mostly reliable and stable. EBSCO itself is ADA compliant. While newer PDFs (since September 2004) and native PDFs that were sent directly from the publisher are compatible with screen reading software, older PDFs are not. EBSCO is also Section 508 compliant. For example, EBSCO has eliminated most tables in the databases to improve searching with screen reading software, and supported the functionality of international keyboards across various browsers. EBSCO supports authentication methods, such as proxy/ip, referring URL, username/password login, Athens, and Shibboleth. USER SUPPORT: 3 What types of customer and technical support are available for end users and library administrators? EBSCO provides 24-hour weekday, and 9:00-5:00 (EST) weekend, telephone and customer support. Free user training is available at the EBSCO web site, and custom onsite or web training can be arranged for library staff. Video tutorials are available in various formats (YouTube, Adobe Flash and Microsoft PowerPoint), and numerous FAQs on topics, such as interface features, customization, authentication and reports, are also available. From database administration perspective, libraries can customize the look and feel of the search interface, including adding additional tabs to the search interface and adding notes and icons to the resources. Libraries also control what gets added/edited/deleted from their resource list, including changing the coverage information as needed. Libraries can get reports such as usage, knowledgebase changes and overlap analysis across various resources.

5 COST: 3 If cost is available, does it seem reasonable in terms of comparable products? EBSCO A-to-Z is comparably priced for consortium members. It may be considered a bargain when the time- and labor-savings features it offers are factored in. Features such as resource overlap analysis, could save a library from purchasing duplicate resources. Libraries that use or are considering other full-text or online content management tools from EBSCO, such as LinkSource, would find further savings when bundling products together (both LinkSource and A-to-Z are included at no additional charge with subscriptions to EBSCO Discovery Service).