EBSCO Information Services
Company typeSubsidiary of EBSCO Industries
IndustryInformation services
Founded1984
HeadquartersIpswich, Massachusetts, United States
Key people
Tim Collins (Founder/CEO)
ProductsEBSCO Discovery Service, EBSCOhost, EBSCO eBooks, EBSCO FOLIO, DynaMed, GOBI, EBSCO Learning, many others
Websitewww.ebsco.com

EBSCO Information Services, headquartered in Ipswich, Massachusetts, is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a private company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. EBSCO provides products and services to libraries of many types around the world. Its products include EBSCONET, a complete e-resource management system, and EBSCOhost, which supplies a fee-based online research service with 375 full-text databases, a collection of 600,000-plus ebooks, subject indexes, point-of-care medical references, and an array of historical digital archives. In 2010, EBSCO introduced its EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) to institutions, which allows searches of a portfolio of journals and magazines.[1]

History

EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a company founded in 1944 by Elton Bryson Stephens Sr. and headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. "EBSCO" is an acronym for Elton B. Stephens Company. EBSCO Industries has annual sales of about $3 billion. It is one of the largest privately held companies in Alabama and one of the top 200 in the United States, based on revenues and employee numbers.[2]

EBSCO Information Services originated in 1984 as a print publication called Popular Magazine Review, featuring article abstracts from more than 300 magazines. In 1987 the company was purchased by EBSCO Industries and its name was changed to EBSCO Publishing. It employed around 750 people by 2007.[3] In 2003, it acquired Whitston Publishing, another database provider.[4] In 2010 EBSCO purchased NetLibrary and in 2011 it took over H. W. Wilson Company.[5][6][7] EBSCO Publishing merged with EBSCO Information Services on July 1, 2013, with the merged business operating as EBSCO Information Services.[8] In 2015 EBSCO acquired YBP (Yankee Book Peddler) Library Services from Baker & Taylor, and later renamed it GOBI Library Solutions.[9][10] As of 2017, the President is Tim Collins.[11]

Metapress was founded in 1998 as an online publication platform for content creators to produce and host their printed journal editions online.[12] A division of EBSCO,[13] the platform became one of the world's largest scholarly content hosts,[14] with over 31,000 publications[15] from over 180 publishers.[16] Atypon acquired the Metapress business from EBSCO in 2014, with the Metapress platform to be discontinued and customers moved to Atypon's Literatum platform.[17][18] Content was migrated to Literatum on May 21, 2015.[19]

In February 2020, EBSCO Information Services announced their agreement to acquire Zepheira, a company founded in February 2007 and headquartered in Reston, Virginia with leaders in Semantic Web and who helped develop Dublin Core, BIBFRAME and the Library.Link Network.[20] Following its merger, Zepheira continues to operates as an independent division.[21]

Products

Green and philanthropic initiatives

EBSCO has two large solar electric arrays, is converting its corporate fleet of cars to hybrids, has established a "Green Team" at its headquarters, and has released GreenFILE, a free database designed to help people research the impact humans have on the environment. EBSCO was awarded a 2008 Environmental Merit Award Award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency's New England Office and was honored by the Special Library Association as "Green Champions" as part of the association's "Knowledge to Go Green" initiative on Earth Day 2009.[27]

EBSCO philanthropic initiatives include efforts to bridge the digital divide (between the industrialized world and developing nations) and work with the Open Society Foundations to provide essential research databases for universities in 39 developing countries.[28] In 2012, the Stephens were recognized for their philanthropic work.[29]

See also

References

  1. ^ "The New and Improved EBSCO Information Services". Information Today. 2013.
  2. ^ "The Largest Private Companies". Forbes. November 9, 2006. Archived from the original on May 9, 2007. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  3. ^ Brynko, Barbara (2011). "Collins: EBSCO's Mission of Growth".
  4. ^ "EBSCO acquires Whitston Publishing Company". Library Technology Guides. 24 September 2003. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  5. ^ "EBSCO Publishing and The H.W. Wilson Company Make Joint Announcement of Merger Agreement". hwwilson.com (Press release). June 1, 2011. Retrieved August 24, 2011.
  6. ^ Barrett, William P. (December 29, 1997). "Mousetrapped". Forbes. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  7. ^ "H.W. Wilson Company". The New York Times.
  8. ^ "EBSCO Publishing and EBSCO Information Services merge" (Press release). EBSCO Industries. May 22, 2013. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
  9. ^ "EBSCO acquires YBP". The Bookseller. 23 February 2015. Archived from the original on 22 February 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  10. ^ "GOBI Library Solutions". EBSCO. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  11. ^ "About: Leadership". EBSCO Information Services. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  12. ^ "Taylor and Francis Journal Host". EContent. January 10, 2003.
  13. ^ "Digital Facilitators". infotoday.com. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  14. ^ "ALA TechSource launches new Web site". ALA.org. 2009-06-05. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  15. ^ "UK Federation Providers". ukfederation.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  16. ^ "Statistics Dissemination Project" (PDF). oecd.org. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  17. ^ "Atypon Systems acquires Metapress from EBSCO Online, Inc". Atypon Systems, Inc. 14 April 2014. Archived from the original on 17 February 2015. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  18. ^ "Atypon acquires EBSCO Online platform". Business Wire. April 14, 2014.
  19. ^ "Atypon completes Metapress transition to Literatum". Atypon. 27 May 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  20. ^ "EBSCO Information Services Acquires Linked Data Infrastructure Provider, Zepheira". EBSCO Information Services. February 27, 2020. Retrieved 2022-04-25.
  21. ^ Breeding, Marshall (April 2020). "EBSCO Information Services Acquires Zepheira". Smart Libraries Newsletter. Vol. 40, no. 4. pp. 2–5. ISSN 1541-8820. Retrieved 2022-04-25.
  22. ^ "Title Lists". EBSCO Information Services. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  23. ^ "Unpaywall | EBSCO Apps & Cloud Services". Archived from the original on 2021-01-29. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
  24. ^ "EBSCO eBooks and audiobooks". Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  25. ^ Prorok, J. C.; Iserman, E. C.; Wilczynski, N. L.; Haynes, R. B. (September 10, 2012). "The quality, breadth, and timeliness of content updating vary substantially for 10 online medical texts: an analytic survey". Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 65 (12): 1289–95. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2012.05.003. PMID 22974495.
  26. ^ "Clinical Decision Support 2013: Sizing up the competition". KLAS Research. December 2013.[permanent dead link]
  27. ^ "A Small Company with Big Ideas for the Environment". Business & the Environment with ISO 14000 Updates. 2007.
  28. ^ "EBSCO: A Plan for All Seasons". Information Today. 2011.
  29. ^ "Outstanding Philanthropists: James 'Jim' and Julie T. Stephens". Birmingham Business Journal. 2012.

Further reading

External links

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