Evidence Synthesis Methods Interest Group

Apologies for cross-posting

For those of you who aren't aware yet, EBSCO is beginning to migrate libraries to their new interface. While we can choose not to switch over for now, we'll be forced to make the change at some point.  I think it's critical that knowledge synthesis librarians get together to provide feedback on the interface before then.  As it is, in my opinion, the new EBSCO interface is entirely unusable from a KS standpoint.

If you haven't seen / tested the new interface yet, you can reach out to your EBSCO rep and they can get you access to try it out.  If you have tested it out, I've put together a EasyRetro board to collect feedback for EBSCO.  

You will be able to add cards, comment on existing cards, and up-vote cards you agree with.  When the board seems to have reached a point of saturation, I'll compile everything into an email and share it with our EBSCO rep.  Hopefully our many voices will be loud enough to make them listen and make changes.

The board can be accessed here:

https://easyretro.io/publicboard/GdRnY3SNkwdF3PFRPoFxEfRMg6T2/5a7d5c0c-ee87-4fb5-83aa-a47b67b24fdc

Thanks in advance for any feedback you may provide.

Richelle Witherspoon, MLIS
University of New Brunswick
rwithers@unb.ca

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Richelle Witherspoon
Information Services Librarian
University of New Brunswick
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UPDATE

Just a quick update on this.

First of all, thanks to everyone who reviewed the new EBSCO platform and contributed your feedback to the EasyRetro board (still available here).  

Based on this feedback, I was able to get a meeting with a number of product managers involved in the design and development of the new platform, and they have assured me that the most urgent KS-related changes are coming to the new platform.  Most importantly, they assured me that bulk exporting, exporting of RIS files, CINAHL subject headings, and Boolean function in the search history would become available as the project progresses.

We also spent about 30 minutes just talking about the KS workflow and how it fits / doesn't fit within the current and future EBSCO platforms.  We discussed existing features and proposed changes and what they mean from both liaison library and KS specialist perspectives.

A few additional notes:

• Full functionality is not expected to be available in the new EBSCO platform for another 1.5 to 2 years at minimum. No library will be required to migrate to it in this time.
  
  A very popular request from KS specialists was title/abstract or title/abstract/keyword searching. No promises were made on this topic, but the overall conversation surrounding it was positive.
  
  EBSCO is very interested in what we have to say and the managers discussed making a particular use-case for KS work and getting perspectives from KS specialists as they continue to work on the new platform.  If you are willing to be contacted by EBSCO for this purpose, you can notify your EBSCO rep and he/she/they will forward your contact information to the correct people.

Thanks again for all of your feedback.  I doubt we would have had the level of interest we got from EBSCO without the contributions of the broader KS community.

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Richelle Witherspoon
Information Services Librarian
University of New Brunswick
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 4/18/2023 10:10:00 AM
From: Richelle Witherspoon
Subject: RE: Share your feedback: the new EBSCO interface is unusable for KS work

UPDATE

Just a quick update on this.

First of all, thanks to everyone who reviewed the new EBSCO platform and contributed your feedback to the EasyRetro board (still available here).  

Based on this feedback, I was able to get a meeting with a number of product managers involved in the design and development of the new platform, and they have assured me that the most urgent KS-related changes are coming to the new platform.  Most importantly, they assured me that bulk exporting, exporting of RIS files, CINAHL subject headings, and Boolean function in the search history would become available as the project progresses.

We also spent about 30 minutes just talking about the KS workflow and how it fits / doesn't fit within the current and future EBSCO platforms.  We discussed existing features and proposed changes and what they mean from both liaison library and KS specialist perspectives.

A few additional notes:

• Full functionality is not expected to be available in the new EBSCO platform for another 1.5 to 2 years at minimum. No library will be required to migrate to it in this time.
  
  A very popular request from KS specialists was title/abstract or title/abstract/keyword searching. No promises were made on this topic, but the overall conversation surrounding it was positive.
  
  EBSCO is very interested in what we have to say and the managers discussed making a particular use-case for KS work and getting perspectives from KS specialists as they continue to work on the new platform.  If you are willing to be contacted by EBSCO for this purpose, you can notify your EBSCO rep and he/she/they will forward your contact information to the correct people.

Thanks again for all of your feedback.  I doubt we would have had the level of interest we got from EBSCO without the contributions of the broader KS community.

------------------------------
Richelle Witherspoon
Information Services Librarian
University of New Brunswick
------------------------------