You can’t help but notice the great big new search box right in the middle of the page, right? That box represents a new way of accessing the library’s many resources. Generically, the search box is the primary interface for Fintel Library’s subscription to EBSCO’s Discovery Service (EDS). It allows a user to access multiple databases from various vendors, plus the library catalog with a single search.
In other words, tell the search box what you are looking for and it will look for your results in Jstor, Academic Search Complete, NewsBank, Business Source Complete (all the EBSCOHost products actually). You can discover e-books (which are now downloadable by the way, more on that later) books, journal articles, images, newspaper and news wire stories, TV and radio transcripts, and videos all with a single search term (more videos than you might think too).
“Sounds like Google” you say, and in a way you are right, and in a way it is a cat of a very different color. The simple search interface and the massive results lists with all their variety of resources are indeed like Google. What is fundamentally different, though, is that the vast majority of the content you will find through the EDS search box is simply not available to internet search engines like Google. The results are full of high-quality citations that the authors and publishers have licensed to EBSCO to make available through EDS. In other words, the people who created the content are getting paid for it. It’s the real deal, so to speak.
So, have a go at the search box for your next assignment. You’ll be amazed at what you can discover.