• Integration with Millennium Course Reserves
• Integration with Millennium Media & Electronic Reserves
• Integration with Millennium Program Registration Event Calendar
• Library staff ability to promote individual titles in RightResult™ ranking
• Ability to search by call number
• Expanded local links and branding Integration with Meebo™ online
• reference widget
• Inclusion of Google Books™ preview
• New community comments feature

All Encore Synergy customers will enjoy all of these new features plus Deep Article Integration. If you have any questions about Encore 4.0 or Encore Synergy features please write the Encore Team.

Trademarks: Google Books™, Google; Meebo™, Meebo, Inc.;
RightResult™, Innovative Interfaces, Inc.

Emeryville, CA—DeKalb County Public Library has selected Encore and will implement Innovative’s discovery platform with the SirsiDynix Horizon™ ILS.

Says Tamika Strong, Automation Services Coordinator: “Our library has been looking at various enhancement tools over the last few years that would improve our patrons’ searching experience when they use our online catalog. We were looking for a product that not only offered Google-like searching and user ratings and reviews, but also the ability to search databases for articles at the same time. We selected Encore because it met these criteria and much more. Encore will help us meet the searching needs of our patrons while at the same time increasing and improving access to more than 900,000 items in our collection.”

About DeKalb County Public Library

DeKalb County Public Library is a place to grow. The library enlightens and enriches the people of DeKalb County by providing responsive, dynamic services that meet the changing informational needs of a diverse population. Through a trained, service-oriented staff, partnerships, and ready access to both print and electronic resources, the library is committed to superior service that promotes a strong, literate DeKalb community and enhances its quality of life.

Horizon™ is a trademark of SirsiDynix.

Syracuse University is now live with Encore Discovery™. The library has implemented Innovative’s discovery services platform as a front-end to their existing Voyager™ ILS provided by Ex Libris, Ltd.

Says Library Project Manager Terriruth Carrier: “Students have adjusted to a new model of interacting with information in the form of social networking tools and Google. Encore gives them a similar experience and a quick way to exploit the benefits of the classic online catalog. Encore lets students and researchers type in whatever they are interested in and easily hone in for details with features such as facets and the Tag Cloud.”

For more on Encore Discovery please write info@encoreforlibraries.com.

Encore Discovery™ is a trademark of Innovative Interfaces, Inc.
Voyager™ is a trademark of Ex Libris, Ltd.

January 16, 2010

Innovative Interfaces announced today that it has entered into a technology partnership with EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) bringing together two of the library community’s most well-regarded vendors. This partnership will offer integrated access to a library’s own EBSCOhost® subscriptions through the library’s Innovative Encore Discovery™ platform. The agreement also allows Encore customers to add reading recommendations directly into Encore catalog results for mutual customers who use NoveList® Select.

Innovative will utilize the EBSCOhost Integration Toolkit™ (EIT) to access metadata from EBSCOhost databases for which the library has a current subscription. The partnership will bring new features to those offered through the EIT including source type, publication title, and facets to expose the subject and date range of the results set. This integration will provide the means for Encore searchers to retrieve real-time search results from EBSCOhost for databases subscribed to via EBSCO, without the need to pre-index the content, integrated with their catalog search results. EIT also provides links to the underlying full-text with support for a variety of file formats.

Betsy Graham, Vice President, Product Management at Innovative Interfaces, observes, “Accessing metadata from EBSCOhost databases the library subscribes to through Encore’s powerful user-focused interface is the best of both worlds for users. Using modern Web Services-based technologies the way they’re intended means more current, integrated, and comprehensive article discovery. Patrons find everything the library has to offer in one search. More and more, it really is ‘All Right Here’ with Encore!”

NoveList Select provides reading recommendations from within a library’s catalog helping promote books that are on the shelves and expands user access to a library’s full collection. Innovative will enable mutual customers to provide NoveList Select directly through the Encore user interface providing users direct access to this recommendation service that ranks among the most popular electronic resources in libraries today.

Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of EBSCO Publishing Michael Gorrell says, “This agreement capitalizes on the strengths of both partners. EBSCO and Innovative have demonstrated the ability to continually address customer needs in creative ways. Partnering on Web Services content delivery and having rich reading recommendations from NoveList Select easily accessible from the Encore platform benefits library patrons and enriches the user experience.”

Integration of EBSCOhost content and availability of NoveList Select is currently planned for early this year.

About EBSCO Publishing

EBSCO Publishing is the world’s premier database aggregator, offering a suite of nearly 300 full-text and secondary research databases. Through a library of tens of thousands of full-text journals, magazines, books, monographs, reports and various other publication types from renowned publishers, EBSCO serves the content needs of all researchers (Academic, Medical, K-12, Public Library, Corporate, Government, etc.). The company’s product lines include proprietary databases such as Academic Search™, Business Source®, CINAHL®, DynaMed™, Literary Reference Center™, MasterFILE™, NoveList®, SocINDEX™ and SPORTDiscus™ as well as dozens of leading licensed databases such as ATLA Religion Database™, EconLit, INSPEC®, MEDLINE®, MLA International Bibliography, The Philosopher’s Index™, PsycARTICLES® and PsycINFO®. Databases are powered by EBSCOhost®, the most-used for-fee electronic resource in libraries around the world (www.ebscohost.com/discovery). For more information, visit the EBSCO Publishing Web site at: www.ebscohost.com, or contact: information@ebscohost.com.

Encore™, Encore Discovery™, and the Encore Framework™ are all trademarks of Innovative Interfaces, Inc. EBSCOhost®, EBSCOhost® Integration Toolkit™, and NoveList® Select, are all trademarks of EBSCO Publishing.

Encore presents the Explore Related Searches link just below the search box. After an initial search, a simple click reveals a tag cloud of context-appropriate new searches at the bottom of the screen, as well as alternative searches powered by the library’s own authority data. At last, a solution that leverages library expertise while delivering a contemporary web search style to which library users are accustomed.

Managers or Executives?

If a user searches for “managers,” Encore presents the “executives” authority term. Reference librarians are familiar with cases where authors have a certain name, such as “Richard Bachman,” (aka Stephen King) that users are unlikely to search for. Just like a librarian who might say, “here’s where you might want to look next,” Encore’s Explore Related Searches gives users the right option at the right time.

In other cases, a single topic has many related topics that may be fruitful but that users would never think of otherwise. Think about a student trying to research “rhetoric.” Encore uncovers pathways to “lectures and lecturing,” “persuasion,” “oratory,” and more.

The Magic Flute

With stage plays or music, there are frequently several versions of a given work. Take a look (pictured) at Explore Related Searches results for a “Magic Flute” query. Encore neatly unpacks the authority record information to provide various “Magic Flutes” by different authors and composers, plus new-search links in the tag cloud for operas and vocal duets, as well as versions for special audiences (“Children’s Songs”).

No matter where a user wants to go—from a broader to a narrower search or vice versa, to a facet that refines a search, or to relevant new searches—Encore gives users the best possible information and the tools to get there. Relevant, in-context information. Elegantly presented with tools to succeed. Discovery with room to explore. That’s Encore.

Find out more about Encore Discovery on this website.

Encore is a modern tool for easy discovery of anything your library wants to offer, and, by extension, it is an easy way to promote aspects of the collections that are truly local. An particularly “earthy” example is St. Lawrence University Library’s (NY) pilot project to build, digitize and then harvest a special collection into Encore called Back to the Land Movement in St. Lawrence County (1960-Present). The Dublin Core metadata that will be harvested is an ideal format for easy discovery by users and deployment into a variety of contexts such as OAIster and Innovative’s Encore discovery platform.

Starting four decades ago, St. Lawrence County was one of dozens of rural destinations in the US to attract the attention of “back-to-the-landers,” a broad movement of mostly young people seeking anti-materialistic lifestyles in rural settings. The back-to-the-landers established communes and individual homesteads, experimented with alternatives to the cash economy, and tried to sustain themselves through farming and other land-based ventures. Over the years, they also became engaged citizens of the county, greatly influencing public life in the region.

Three key components of the digital archival project are to search the published record for citations; conduct fieldwork in St. Lawrence County; and invite those associated with the back-to-the-land community to submit copies of their own photographs, journals, and newsletters for inclusion into the collection. The collection will consist of 3,000-4,000 items such as journals, books, newsletters, ephemera, recorded interviews, and photographs created by back-to-the-landers in the county and by those who have documented this movement.

Says Bart Harloe, University Librarian: “Despite the great significance of back-to-the-landers to the history and culture of St. Lawrence County, no systematic effort has ever been made to assemble a research collection on the subject. The partners in this project aim to amass as complete a record of this population as possible.”

The collection is just one of three harvesting projects that also include the Dwight P. Church Photography Collection and Nsukka Artists and Contemporary Nigerian Art Collection. The latter fits perfectly with the curricula offered through St. Lawrence University’s African Studies program and Kenya Study Abroad program. Each entails bringing OAI-compliant metadata into the Encore catalog, side by side with e-journals and book titles.

Harloe continues: “An Encore search will provide a very good picture of what kinds of resources are available, their history and strengths, and a one-step search for articles across the various disciplines. The addition of these three collections, including Back to the Land, is going to blend in as a bellwether of our contribution to the campus and integral to teaching and research.”

Encore quite simply offers up the best from the world of information, plus the ability to bring local collections in the mix that bring folks back to the library, literally and figuratively. In the case of St. Lawrence University…Back to the Land and back to the library!

Find out more about Encore Harvesting Services.

]]> http://encoreforlibraries.com/2009/09/11/oai-pmh-harvesting-at-st-lawrence-university-library-ny/feed 0 http://encoreforlibraries.com/2009/01/15/ils-independentmillennium-optimized http://encoreforlibraries.com/2009/01/15/ils-independentmillennium-optimized#comments Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:24:23 +0000 Andrea Silvestri http://encoreforlibraries.com/?p=83 ILS independent

Encore Discovery works with any integrated library system. For example, Fairfield University (CT) wanted a next-generation discovery tool without having to change their ILS. Virtually overnight, they transformed the user experience while retaining their current technology platform. Same data, different front-end, real results!

Encore just felt right when searching it. We knew that its elegant design would elicit the same enthusiasm from our patrons.

Susan Marcin
Head of Digital Services & Technology Planning
Fairfield University (CT)

Millennium Optimized

When paired with Innovative’s own ILS, Millennium, Encore Discovery offers functionality that other discovery tools do not: real-time, smart connections to library system data. Encore can display critical information to users about current activity in their accounts as well as providing personalized features such as community ratings, reviews, tagging, and My Lists. The direct connection to Millennium also means that all catalog and circulation information is up-to-date including current status of materials. When Millennium-optimized, Encore has a “right now” view of the library’s collection at all times.