EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO), the leading provider of aggregated content resources for libraries, has released its new policy on metadata sharing and technology collaboration. EBSCO will make all metadata (and full text when contractually allowed) available for more than 120 full-text databases and 500,000+ e-books, as well as over 50 historical digital archives to third party discovery services. The policy outlines EBSCO’s commitment to exchanging metadata and integrating technologies with partner vendors to enable an enhanced discovery experience for mutual customers.
EBSCO’s new policy covers critical areas of mutual collaboration with other discovery vendors. In addition to the sharing of metadata (and full text where allowed), the policy includes EBSCO providing assistance with linking technology that has been requested by customers.
EBSCO Information Services Executive Vice President, Sam Brooks says: “We believe that by outlining our plan in an open way, we are encouraging greater partnerships and transparent goals for collaboration among ILS vendors, discovery providers and content providers. It’s been a long time coming for such an open policy, but we are excited to take this step, and we’re confident that our customers, and ultimately their end users, will benefit greatly.”
Just as libraries that use a third party discovery service will experience the benefit of inclusion of EBSCO content and linking technology, the working partnership calls for discovery vendors who are also ILS providers to enable patron catalog functionality within EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS). This will ensure that the desired user experience is achieved for customers who choose EDS as their front end. In the end, all customers win—those who have chosen EDS, as well as those who are using another discovery solution.
The full policy including partnership terms and policies and features is available at: www.ebscohost.com/metadata-sharing-policy.
