Welcome to another academic year! We are kicking off with new content on Points of View Reference Center (PoV) and Points of View Debate Blog. More updates are on the way.

New Content - On Points of View Reference Center, you'll find articles about "Arab Spring," "Conspiracy Theories," and the "Transportation Infrastructure." Transportation dominated as the 2012 National Debate Topic, and summoned lively debate this summer at the National Forensics League annual tournament. To learn more about winning high school debate teams, click a link to the National Forensics League Tournament Page.

The debut topic on Points of View Debate Blog this year is gun violence, focused primarily on the recent tragedies in Aurora, Colorado, at the Empire State Building, and a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. These events have dominated news coverage and relate to many significant debates in the U.S., including gun control, racism, psychology and the media.

Monthly Prize - Our monthly award for the best student blog comment continues this year. The winning comment will be selected from responses to the designated monthly topic. We encourage student participation. Healthy and reasoned debate can help improve communication and critical thinking skills. Debate gives students an opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue with their peers and instructors.

We hope you will peruse the blog regularly and direct your students to subjects relating to the curriculum, or other topics that naturally arise in classroom discussions. Tips and guides for writing a winning comment are provided here. When you visit the blog, please note that past topics are available for comment as well. These are archived on the blog for reference. Students are encouraged to share their views on these topics as well. However, the monthly prize is only awarded for comments related to the current monthly topic.

Our Points of View Debate Blog moderator reviews all comments before posting to the blog site. All comments must relevant and respectful. Comments containing spam, offensive language, or personal attacks will be rejected.

Let Us Hear from You! - As always, we encourage new topic suggestions from students and educators. Ideas? Questions? Let us know, using the blog's contact form.

Points of View Debate Blog is a free companion service to Points of View Reference Center. Go to http://www.ebscohost.com/pov-blog, follow it on Twitter @PointsofView_EP, or email us at debateblog@ebscohost.com.

Wishing you a great start to the academic year!

EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) has released an updated version of EBSCOhost® Mobile providing library patrons and researchers worldwide with optimal searching from the most popular smartphones and mobile devices. With ease of use and more functionality, the new EBSCOhost Mobile will provide users with an improved search experience for accessing EBSCOhost databases and EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) on the go.

EBSCOhost Mobile can now be accessed without any initial administrative profile set up or software download required. EBSCOhost Mobile's new smart technology auto-detects when an EBSCOhost user is visiting from a mobile device. The platform automatically directs the user to the optimal search experience for their device, making login and access faster and more streamlined. In the case of iPads, users will be directed to the EBSCOhost full site, which has been optimized for iPad use.

In addition to a more modern mobile site and usability enhancements, new EBSCOhost Mobile allows libraries to customize the interface with their own brands, colors, and logos, and to benefit from patron analytics provided with enhanced, device-specific usage reporting. For EDS users, EBSCOhost Mobile provides guest access and real-time availability checking for items in the library catalog. Library patrons and researchers worldwide benefit from user interface translation into 28 languages, full access to facets and search options, the integration of folders, plus the addition of book jackets images and publication-type icons for a more visual experience. Users have the option of toggling between the mobile site and the full EBSCOhost site. Direct-to-device download support for e-books will be added to the EBSCOhost Mobile site in the coming months.

More information about EBSCOhost Mobile and the latest upgrades to mobile searching for EBSCOhost and EBSCO Discovery Service is available at: http://www.ebscohost.com/academic/mobile-access.

This affects users who search ERIC content through EBSCO's EBSCOhost and OCLC's FirstSearch platforms.

As part of our ongoing product enhancements, which typically happen between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. EST, we will be extending that window on May 12th, 2012 to be between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. EST. Users accessing Gale, Cengage Learning resources during this time may experience a brief interruption in service.

EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) has released an EBSCOhost® Android app ensuring that Android device users can quickly and easily take full advantage of their premium EBSCOhost database content from wherever they happen to be. The Android app is the latest option in EBSCO's mobile access technology -providing flexible access options for all popular mobile devices and the same user-friendly and easy-to-use search experience that is available when logging in to EBSCO's library resources online.

Available as a free download from the Android Market, the EBSCOhost Android app allows users to search premium EBSCOhost database content while utilizing existing EBSCOhost features -- bringing the most popular and useful functionality to researchers. These features include choosing which database to search, limiting to full text, date ranges, peer-reviewed content or by publication, and searching a library's catalog.

Additional features include the ability to view content in visual landscape mode and the option to save articles and PDF full-text content on the device for offline viewing. The app can be used on devices running Android v. 2.1 or later.

EBSCO's mobile technology began with the success of EBSCOhost® Mobile, a website application designed for Internet capable mobile devices including smartphones. In Spring 2011 EBSCO released an iPhone app providing a quick and convenient way for Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users to access quality content via EBSCOhost.

If you use the Business Searching Interface (BSI) for searching Business Source Premier, Business Source Alumni, Business Source Complete or Business Source Corporate, we have some important information for you.

Near the end of this month, you will notice that several updates and a more streamlined look have been applied to the BSI. The interface will more closely resemble the popular EBSCOhost interface, and will provide you with many new features not currently available on the BSI.

For more information on these updates, including screen shots, please see this page on our Support Site:

Business Searching Interface Updates

Customer Success is offering a complimentary, online overview of the new features in the Business Searching Interface starting soon. Please visit http://training.ebsco.com and look for 'Business Searching Interface: New Features' to register today!

Search Assist -- our autocomplete feature -- and other enhancements you asked for are now available in Gale PowerSearch.

New features, improved search functionality, and more relevant results are now available in Gale PowerSearch and InfoTrac collections.

Based on your valuable input, users will discover engaging features like:

• Search Assist Autocomplete
• Enhanced Publication and Subject Search
• Language Customizability

And for Gale In Context subscribers, these new enhancements mean users will experience cross-searching functionality across select Gale In Context titles, including Biography, Science, History and others, for the very first time.

Learn about these new features by viewing presentations, guided tours and more >>

If you have questions about these enhancements, contact Technical Support at 1-800-877-4253, option 4, or via e-mail at Gale.TechnicalSupport@cengage.com.

We are pleased to announce that the transition of eBooks and Audiobooks on EBSCOhost is nearly complete. Over the coming days, you may notice that when you log in to NetLibrary to access these products you will automatically be forwarded to EBSCOhost.

Over the previous months we have sent Weekly eBooks Updates to outline the important changes this transition will include. If you missed a previous Weekly eBooks Update, please click here to view the archives - http://support.ebsco.com/ebooks/tips.php

Please note that the preview period of eBooks on EBSCOhost will be concluded once the transition is complete. You will then be able to access your own collections automatically via EBSCOhost.

In addition, if you are interested in your NetLibrary reports and statistics, please access the Library Resource Center immediately because once the transition is complete, you will no longer be able to do so.

We are pleased to offer extensive, free support and training information. Please see this page to register for training and explore the other helpful information provided.

Today's Weekly eBooks Update #8 is about the Library Resource Center and how library administrators will be able to manage account settings, etc. using EBSCOadmin, once the transition to EBSCOhost is completed in mid-July.

For clarity, we have created a chart to show you existing Library Resource Center features and their counterparts in EBSCOadmin, on this page:

http://support.epnet.com/support_news/detail.php?id=683

If you missed a previous Weekly eBooks Update, check these archives:

• Weekly eBooks Update #1 - Statistics - 4/15/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #2 - EZ Proxy - 4/22/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #3 - Personalization - 4/29/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #4 - Logos and Branding - 5/6/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #5 - Library Catalog Links to eBooks - 5/13/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #6 - Media Center and Download Manager - 5/20/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #7 - Title Select - 6/10/11

Weekly eBooks Update #7 is about Title Select. After the transition to eBooks on EBSCOhost has been completed (mid-July, 2011), Title Select will still accept new orders, but will no longer be updated with new titles. If you have an inquiry concerning new titles that may not be loaded onto Title Select, we ask that you please contact your EBSCO Publishing sales representative.

A new, versatile tool will become available to you later this year: EBSCOhost Collection Manager (ECM). ECM will do a better job of showcasing collections and subject sets, and will include logical, pertinent recommendations for libraries. We are confident that you will find ECM to be a very useful tool when searching for the best available content to add to your collections.

To support you during the interim period between the completed transition and the availability of the new EBSCOhost Collection Manager, we are also planning some changes to make Title Select more viable.

If you missed a previous Weekly eBooks Update, check these archives:

• Weekly eBooks Update #1 -Statistics - 4/15/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #2 - EZ Proxy - 4/22/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #3 - Personalization - 4/29/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #4 - Logos and Branding - 5/6/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #5 - Library Catalog Links to eBooks - 5/13/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #6 - Media Center and Download Manager - 5/20/11

This week's update concerns the NetLibrary Media Center and Download Manager, both of which will remain available to users until the final transition from NetLibrary to EBSCOhost is completed in July 2011. At that time, the Media Center and NetLibrary Download Manager will be retired and a new, enhanced version of the Download Manager will become available.

Knowing how important it is that all users be made aware of these changes, we will send a message to Media Center users that will contain the information posted on this page. Access to the page will also be provided from the NetLibrary web site, to further ensure that all active users will have the chance to learn about these important changes in advance of the transition.

This is a one-time communication to users, important because they will need to save their personal account content (notes on eBooks, lists of eBooks/Audiobooks, and any information on holds they may have placed on eBooks/Audiobooks) somewhere safe, before the transition takes place. After the transition to EBSCOhost, users will be able to set up their own My EBSCOhost accounts for saving and managing their eBooks and Audiobooks.

If you missed a previous Weekly eBooks Update, check these archives:

• Weekly eBooks Update #1 -Statistics - 4/15/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #2 - EZ Proxy - 4/22/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #3 - Personalization - 4/29/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #4 - Logos and Branding - 5/6/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #5 - Library Catalog Links to eBooks - 5/13/11

Have a question? Check out the NetLibrary Support Center on EBSCO's Support Site, or drop us a line with your question using the EBSCO Online Support Form.

Britannica Online Academic Edition
Join us to learn new ways to get students started on their projects using Britannica Online Academic Edition. During this 2-hour, hands-on training session, participants will have their questions answered and learn about Britannica Online's special features, including:
- Research tools to compare countries using demographic and economic statistics, including built-in graphing and charting tools.
- The Workspace storage tool for students and faculty to collect their own research materials for future use.
- Resources for every subject including History, Geography, Art, Humanities, Business, Science, and Technology.
9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
To register click here.

Britannica Online Public Library Edition
Join us to learn ways to help both children and adults find answers to their questions and get started on projects, using the new Britannica Online Public Library Edition. Bring your questions and our Expert Britannica Trainer will be glad to answer them during this 2 hour presentation. Participants will learn about special features including:
- "Kids" section with reference and educational materials for elementary and middle school students.
- The World Data Analyst for patrons to study and compare different statistics from countries all over the world.
- The Workspace storage tool for patrons to collect their own research materials for future use.
- Resources for every subject including History, Geography, Art, Humanities, Business, Science, and Technology.
12:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
To register click here.

Britannica Online School Edition
Join us to learn new ways to do research projects with students using Britannica Online School Edition and to get ideas for integrating technology into your classroom! Bring your questions and we will be glad to answer them during this 1.5 hour presentation. Elementary, middle/junior high, and high schools will learn about special features including:
- The Workspace storage tool for students to collect their own research materials for future use.
- Classroom curriculum resources for American History, World Studies, Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry, and all levels of Language Arts and Math.
- Expanded video and media content, including a video download feature.
- Learning Zone feature for PreK-2nd grade students
- Integration of Minnesota Academic Standards
3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
To register click here.

This week's eBook Update is about your library catalog links (that came from NetLibrary MARC records) to eBooks. With the July cutover to eBooks on EBSCOhost, those links will be automatically redirected to the EBSCOhost domain, indefinitely.

This means that the links will continue to work without you having to make any changes to them whatsoever.

If you missed a previous Weekly eBooks Update, check these archives:

• Weekly eBooks Update #1 -Statistics - 4/15/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #2 - EZ Proxy - 4/22/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #3 - Personalization - 4/29/11
• Weekly eBooks Update #4 - Logos and Branding - 5/6/11

Have a question? Check out the NetLibrary Support Center on EBSCO's Support Site, or drop us a line with your question using the EBSCO Online Support Form.