Overview
Founded in 1975, the Colegio de Estudios Superiores de Administracíon (CESA) is a top business school in Bogotá, Colombia, that enrolls more than 1,800 pre- and post-graduate students studying administration, finance and economics. To support the research needs of students ― as well as faculty, administrators and graduates ― the CESA library collection includes more than 20,000 print volumes, subscriptions to 127 national and international journals, and 46 electronic databases.
To support the library’s mission to provide innovative and quality services, CESA library leaders began evaluating discovery platforms in late 2013. After considering the products of four discovery solutions vendors, CESA ultimately selected EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), a powerful research platform that allows users to search across the majority of a library’s holdings at once using a single search box. The school was the first in Latin America to implement the EDS API with Koha, an open-source integrated library system created by librarians for librarians.
Since the 2014 launch of EDS – known as “Discovery” to CESA users – the library has seen an increase in the use of its electronic resources.
[EDS] gives us the best option for delivering an optimal search and retrieval experience for our users.
[EDS] gives us the best option for delivering an optimal search and retrieval experience for our users.
Implementation
According to Celiar Quiroga, Library Director at CESA, pairing EDS with Koha provides the library’s users with the best search experience.
“[It] was the most natural choice for us,” he said. “It gives us the best option for delivering an optimal search and retrieval experience for our users.”
Working with EBSCO and a local Koha support provider, Metabiblioteca, the CESA Library was able to integrate critical components of EDS into their existing Koha solution. One of the EDS features that the library has come to rely on is the inclusion of subject indexes which combines rich metadata with subject indexing and abstracts from leading subject indexes that aren't available through any other discovery service.
“The subject indexes have become a strategic partner for the user, allowing a controlled natural language to define their information needs and obtain better relevant results,” Quiroga said. “[This] maximizes the value of our library resources.”
Benefits & Results
Since the 2014 launch of EDS – known as “Discovery” to CESA users – the library has seen an increase in the use of its electronic resources. Specifically, the library experienced a 13 percent increase in the number of full-text downloads.
In addition, students are finding the information they need more quickly and easily while developing the digital information literacy skills they will need to be successful, contributing members of society.
“Our users have expressions of wonder and satisfaction when they realize they can find all they need in just one search box,” Quiroga said. “The quality of information helps them very much to improve their academic skills.”
Quiroga said that integrating the EDS API with Koha also aligns with the library’s goals to be at the forefront in providing innovative and quality resources.
“Using EDS API with Koha will position our library to be among the best in the business schools in Colombia and Latin America,” he said.