Encore has been designed on the principle that users should have a single search box that discovers all types of information offered by the library. Articles are a key component of the information libraries offer, from scholarly research sources, which command the majority of academic library budgets, to the up-to-the-minute news sources available to public library patrons.

With Encore Synergy, the Encore Discovery architecture has been extended to fully integrate next-generation article discovery technology. Users are seamlessly presented with an article “preview” and can move effortlessly between the local collection discovery mode to the article mode, and back again. The user interface is familiar to Encore users but now applied to article searching, with provider-supplied relevance optimized for the article data and facets such as full-text and peer reviewed.

Encore Synergy enhances the database provider’s discovery tools with local library features, such as the tag cloud and “Did You Mean?” features derived from local indexing. The library’s unique, mission-specific metadata continues to offer guidance and search pathways through the ocean of web information.

“Deep Article Integration” is how I refer to how Encore Synergy brings articles to a single search box model. Unlike any other product, Encore Synergy includes articles by leveraging local metadata, streaming live content, adding discovery tools, and providing maximum flexibility in a user’s discovery session. In short, when the goal is broad, simple discovery of all kinds of content Encore Synergy brings in articles the smart way.

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.

Best, yet, now that Encore provides direct access to patron records, it also saves one of your most precious assets – staff time. Enhanced user discovery experience, patron empowerment, it’s all right here.

With community tagging, Encore invites users to participate in the discovery process in a whole new way. Now library staff and users alike can add tags that enrich descriptive materials, making it easier to find and understand library holdings. For example, staff of the Ethics Center at University of Nebraska-Lincoln gave over 300 books the tag “Ethics Center.” When you search Encore for that term you get materials on applied ethics and the teaching of ethics—subjects that are difficult to search in traditional subject headings without using a lot of terms. See for yourself in this search for ethics center on UNL’s Encore implementation!

Specialization Made Easy

Ditto with emerging and specialized terms. Anyone who’s concerned about how to behave in cyberspace (and aren’t we all?) would surely want materials addressing that topic to be tagged with the word “netiquette.” And for the medical specialist, a general search using the term “dermatology” may or may not reveal the debate, spreading like a rash among dermatologists, about what to call the examination of skin lesions using a dermatoscope. Is it dermatoscopy or dermoscopy, or simply epiluminescence microscopy? You or I may not care, but these specialized tags help select communities benefit from their knowledge and get the most out of your library’s catalog.