OCLC and EBSCO Develop Partnership to Offer Interoperability of Services and Increased Options for Discovery

Libraries can now elect to use EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) with WorldCat Data for customized collection discovery. OCLC and EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) have signed an agreement to make EDS interoperable with OCLC WorldShare Management Services, enabling libraries to use EDS as their discovery layer and WorldShare Management Services as their library management system. Additionally, the companies are investigating working toward an integrated solution allowing WorldCat Local users who also subscribe to EDS to search and retrieve results from EDS within the WorldCat Local service.

Libraries using the integrated EDS-WMS solution will be able to perform cataloging, acquisitions, license management and circulation in OCLC's next generation cloud-based management system, while providing their patrons with the EDS discovery service as a user front end. OCLC and EBSCO are working together to integrate such key WMS functions into EDS as patron identity management, item availability, circulation and system configuration. Because libraries using this integrated solution will catalog in WorldCat, users of EDS in this configuration will have the ability to access all of WorldCat.

"The EBSCO-OCLC approach provides libraries with flexibility and choice," said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO. "It enables them to configure their discovery, content and management services according to their needs. It reduces duplication of effort at the same time that it vastly increases the availability of library resources. It will be a model for future collaboration on the WorldShare Platform across the library ecosystem."

"Libraries' situations vary so greatly that the over-arching need is for options and customization," said Tim Collins, President of EBSCO Publishing. "This partnership allows libraries using WorldCat Local and OCLC WorldShare Management Services to customize the approach to discovery and collection utilization for their institutions, while exposing an even broader array of content available via EDS."

"This affiliation between EDS and WMS illustrates the value of building partnerships in service to libraries using the OCLC WorldShare Platform," said Chip Nilges, OCLC Vice President, Business Development. This strategic partnership reflects OCLC's commitment to provide broader access to the Platform environment and WorldCat data, outside of OCLC developed applications. "Partners like EBSCO can take advantage of the same infrastructure that OCLC uses to build and maintain its own services, providing libraries with an extended range of options that take advantage of the same core data."