The EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) provides your patrons and users with an easy, yet powerful, means of accessing all of your institution's information resources through a single search. EDS contains information from as many as 70,000 publishers and other providers who make available hundreds of millions of records from hundreds of thousands of journals, magazines, books, and other content sources.
This creates an all-inclusive search solution for in-depth researching for users of your Stacks site. The EBSCO Discovery Service can be integrated with Stacks in one of two ways, as an
- Outbound search
- Inbound search (API integration)
As an outbound search, users can initiate their search using the primary search bar of your Stacks site; they will then be taken out to the EBSCO Discovery Service application to see their results. From there, they can use the Discovery service's built-in features to continue to refine or expand on their search.
The inbound search is an API integration (API stands for Application Programming Interface); in simple terms, API integrations are a set of rules and protocols that allow two different applications to share data with each other. With the EDS API integration, users can again initiate their search using the primary search bar, but rather than going out to EDS, they are directed to a search result page within your Stacks site where the integration will pull the searched content to.
As we'll discuss in this article, you can configure the EDS API integration in Stacks to provide a similar experience to that which users would find in EDS. An advantage to keeping users in Stacks is that this can provide a seamless, unified search experience, and help ensure easy access to other content on your site.
Which search option should I use?
Both search options will provide access to the wealth of information available in EDS, ultimately, it's up to you to decide which experience will best suit your patrons/users.
Setting Up the EDS Integration
Outbound Search Integration
If your users/patrons are already familiar with the EDS interface and wish to maintain this experience, you can configure outbound search to EDS as was described above.
To set this up, you'll need to log into your instance of the EBSCO Discovery Service and run a simple search, and then copy the URL from your web browser.
Outbound searches are web-based searches and the information in the copied URL will be used to tell your Stacks site how to perform these searches.
For more information on how an outbound search works, see the article Understanding Outbound Searches. For step by step instructions on how to breakdown the URL and setup an EDS outbound search, see the user guide article Outbound Searches to the NEW EDS.
Inbound Search Integration
Like the outbound search just discussed, some configuration is also required to setup an inbound EDS search. Specifically, you will need to enter the API credentials for your instance of EDS into the API Credentials menu in the Dashboard > Integrations > Search > EBSCO Discovery Service tile.
For step-by-step instructions on configuring these settings, see the user guide article EDS API Settings.
Configuring the Search Experience
As mentioned previously, you can create a tailored search experience for your users/patrons when using the EDS search integration, this allows you to mimic a similar experience users could see using the EBSCO Discovery Service.
Search results can display a great deal of information as well as options to further limit or expand on results, as well as buttons and links to see more information.
Many of the settings and configuration options we'll discuss below are found in the same area as the API credentials just discussed, through the Dashboard > Integrations > Search > EBSCO Discovery Service tile.
Read More
Read More is a button that users could see on their search results. When clicked, this will open to the EBSCO Discovery Service for the user to access the article's full abstract, summary, or description which is truncated in the results view.
The link that users are directed to is configured as a part of the API integration and is not something that can be changed; however, if needed, you will have the ability to disable the appearance of the button so users cannot access it.
Limiters, Expanders, Facets, and Placards
Limiters, Expanders, and Facets
Limiters, expanders, and facets are tools your users can use to either drill down or expand on their search results. These options, if enabled, will appear on the left side of the search result window. Configuration options allow you to choose whether
- The limiter, expander, and/or facet is enabled and visible for users to use
- If the limiter, expander, and/or facet section is expanded by default to display the values that can be selected
If necessary, you also have the option to hide individual limiter and expander values.
Placards
Placards are another feature of the EBSCO Discovery Service, that if enabled, can also be enabled for your Stacks site as well. Placard options include Research Starters, Exact Match Publication, and EDS Autocomplete.
- Research Starters, will display quick summaries of the most popular topics. If a research starter is available for the search being run, it will appear as the first result in the list of search results
- Exact Match Publication, is basically a publication title search. If an exact match is found, the publication details will be displayed in its own placard at the top of the column on the left, above the limiters, expanders, facets, etc
- If the EDS Autocomplete is enabled, the placard will provide search suggestions that will appear based on what the user types in the search bar
Custom Filters
Custom filters can also be added to your Stacks site. When used, these filter options will appear in a drop-down beside the primary search bar. Users can enter their search term, select the custom filter, then run their search.
Featured Tabs
Featured tabs are another way of creating custom filters for your users to use with their searches. These tabs will appear at the top of the search results, clicking a tab will then enforce the filters selected and update the results on the page that match.
These tabs can be filtered by source type, content provider, or subject; further to that, you can query EDS to select which facets should be applied.
Enabling the EDS search in your search bar
Once the EDS search has been configured, you next need to enable it to ensure your users have access to it. We will discuss some important parts to this configuration but full step-by-step instructions are available in the Search Configuration user guide article.
From the Dashboard > Search Configuration > Settings tile, you will see a list of all the configured searches (and all possible search integrations) which can be enabled.
- Check the box in the Enabled column beside the search(es) you wish to enable, the EDS API search is typically named 'EDS Search' by default
Also from here, clicking the Edit button on the right will open a window where you can
- Edit the display label that your patrons/users will see (if you have more than 1 search enabled)
- Enable the Advanced Search option
- Advanced search will appear as a button beside the main search button when the EDS search is selected. When a user clicks this button, a window will open allowing the user to enter multiple search terms, as well as limit to certain fields and even date parameters.
- Enable Bento
- Add Tooltip text
Near the bottom of the Dashboard > Search Configuration > Settings window are a series of fields including:
- The default search (if more than one is selected)
- Style (how multiple enabled searches are displayed to users)
- Either as tabs above the search bar or as a drop-down field beside the search bar
Working with search results
Once your search has been enabled and users start running searches, as we've already discussed, they may see a number of options to either expand or limit the search results. Additionally, users may also see a various buttons on each of the search results being returned.
Search result buttons
Depending on the features enabled in your EDS, and the content available that is being searched, various buttons may be visible on the search results.
Search result buttons will provide additional access to the content your users are searching, this can include the ability to open the content as a PDF, eBook, full text access, and more. The links to some of these buttons are configurable through EBSCOadmin; a full breakdown of the buttons can be viewed on the Search Result Buttons user guide article.