Representatives from EBSCO eBooks and GOBI Library Solutions attended the User Group to not only present new services that help streamline e-book acquisition and management workflows but also to hear directly from our customers. This feedback and input from our customers is crucial to ensure we’re building the services that libraries need. Here are the top Books-related themes we heard at this year’s User Group.
eBook Manager Enhancements
Libraries need more control over their eBook collections in order to maximize availability for users. The release of eBook Manager has provided libraries with many new ways to view and manage the EBSCO eBooks in their collection, which are helping them to better understand and leverage what they own and access. Librarians reacted positively to the addition of new data to turnaway alert emails and more granular settings for turnaway alerts within eBook Manager, all of which were released in July 2023. Libraries have indicated that these options will save them and their staff significant research time and reduce cognitive overload when deciding whether to upgrade an eBook in their collection. We heard about other things libraries would like to see in eBook Manager, such as identifying eBooks that will be removed from subscriptions and providing instant access URLs provided at the time of order. We will incorporate this feedback into our roadmap.
EBSCO eBooks in the New UI
There are two key advantages for EBSCO eBooks in the new UI. First, we see more graceful handling of library-specific settings from eBook Manager on the new UI compared to what we can do in the Classic interface. Secondly, the forthcoming improved download workflow for EBSCO eBooks in the new UI will highlight chapter downloads over full book downloads, to encourage users toward a less complex download process. The migration to a new UI is in the future for many libraries, so we encouraged librarians to begin previewing the new UI if they are not already to inform their migration timeline. This will enable libraries to test out the refreshed user experience, learn about its many advantages over our Classic interfaces, and provide feedback to EBSCO about what their library needs for a successful migration.
Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash
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