EBSCOhost 2.0: How EBSCO Is Changing Minds, Sort Of

So along comes EBSCOhost 2.0, the first EBSCO database interface

I have to admit that I'm a bit of a purist. I believe that we need to train people to become skilled users of information rather than dumbing down the process to meet the demands of an uninterested audience. I've resisted federating searching, Google-like interfaces, and the "keyword is good enough" mentality for years.

Not that I'm a curmudgeon (at least I hope not). It's just that information is too important to the future of humanity to have its users fumbling with it using inferior skills. The justification for greatly simplifying down the search process-"Our students grew up with Google and won't use anything more complicated"-just doesn't cut it. The cost of not finding the information we need, not evaluating it properly, and not using it to advantage is too high.

So along comes EBSCOhost 2.0, the first EBSCO database interface makeover since 2002. What you notice right away is that it looks like Google. When I first saw it, my reaction was that my favorite database company had sold out, dumbed down, abandoned its support of information literacy, and betrayed us all. But don't quote me on that, because EBSCO has changed my mind, sort of.