EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) from EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is now being used by more universities and academic institutions in Russia and Belarus. To date, 25 institutions have chosen EDS as their discovery solution. Among the institutions that have implemented EDS in these two countries, the Central Scientific Library UB Russian Academy of Science and the Russian State Library are two of the most prominent. Full-text linking capabilities, EDS’s simple point of access to all library resources, and an interface in Russian were common factors impacting these sites’ decision to implement EDS.
Library Director at the Central Scientific Library UB Russian Academy of Science, Polina Treskova, said that EDS’s Russian-speaking interface and simple point of access to the Library’s entire collection made EDS the perfect discovery service for the institution. “The functionality of EDS fully satisfies the needs of users of CSL UB RAS.”
Natalia Litvinova, Chief Librarian and Electronic Resource Coordinator for the Russian State Library, also says that EDS provides the single point of access and easy-to-use interface needed by library users. “EDS was certainly the right fit for the Russian State Library and its users, because we got a single access point to all content the Library provides, and this point is user-friendly and easy to understand using the native language of Russian users.”
Litvinova also pointed to the Russian State Library’s long relationship with EBSCO as a deciding factor in the decision. “We have a very positive experience both using EBSCO products and services and interacting with the EBSCO team, which is very competent and supportive. It certainly influenced our decision to choose EDS as a discovery service for the Library.” The Discipline Limited Searching feature and the widespread availability of most of the Library’s licensed resources in EDS were also major factors in the institution’s decision.