The EBSCO User Group for North American academic libraries took place June 7-8 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Find some of the key takeaways from the EBSCO User Group shared by Bonnie Leavitt, VP Product Management. 

What We Learned at the EBSCO User Group 
Several EBSCO Product Managers attended the User Group to talk to our customers and learn from the diverse presentations.  As part of our Pragmatic approach to Product Management, we highly value customer input to drive our roadmaps and enhancements.  While we learned many lessons at the User Group, this represents the top themes and requests we consistently heard. 

Documentation is Crucial
Customers appreciate our extensive documentation on Connect, and EBSCO needs to stay consistent in ensuring any new feature has corresponding documentation. This is especially important as we release more net new functionality in the New User Interface and EBSCO Experience Manager.  This functionality allows EBSCO to ease the burden on customers to create their own documentation. We also learned that customers value the information and transparency that our quarterly roadmaps and release notes provide. We are looking to expand these into all product areas. 

Ability to Configure and Customize is Paramount
While EBSCOadmin can be overwhelming, it provides the ability to customize and configure nearly every EBSCO product and service. As our customers support all different types of users in different markets and regions, it is important for EBSCO to allow customization to tailor the product to their specific needs. We strongly heard this feedback in the context of New UI filters and limiters, where some settings are not customizable. We plan on incorporating this feedback into our near-term roadmaps. We also heard it was important to have a guide on where settings are handled – EBSCOadmin or EBSCO Experience Manager – and plan to create this soon.

Make Sure Your Library is Prepared to Migrate
We know migration to the New UI is a big deal for a library, especially when some libraries have been training users on our Classic interface for 15+ years. In the User Group sessions focused on migration, we learned that customers may require up to a year to prepare for migration as they need to rework materials such as LibGuides and train their staff on the New UI. Presenters also highlighted that it is important for customers to review their New UI preview instance and make any changes before going live. 

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