EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) and The H.W. Wilson Company (Wilson) have merged in what is being viewed by the companies as an ideal match. This combination of organizations will allow the strengths of each to benefit existing and forthcoming products & services.

With 180 combined years of experience serving libraries, EBSCO and Wilson have traveled similar paths, but have maintained unique advantages and abilities. Libraries using products from either company will benefit as improvements are made to the respective resources. Wilson database products are known for their quality indexing.  The Wilson subject thesaurus and Wilson “names” authority file are largely considered the best of their kind, and the WilsonWeb platform systematically leverages this valuable indexing within its searching to provide high quality, relevant results to end users.  The Wilson controlled vocabularies will be integrated into EBSCO’s controlled vocabularies, resulting in improved subject indexing for EBSCO databases. The EBSCOhost^® platform will be enhanced to take advantage of this indexing in its search and relevancy ranking algorithms.

According to Tim Collins, President of EBSCO Publishing, this acquisition leads directly to heightening the value and quality of EBSCO and Wilson resources. “Upholding the integrity of the Wilson indexing is essential, and extending these attributes to EBSCOhost resources is a critical part of this venture.  When it comes to thesauri (subjects and names), and how these are leveraged, Wilson has long been an industry leader.   We look forward to bringing this value and approach to all applicable EBSCOhost databases and are excited about the benefits this will bring to EBSCOhost users.  We are also pleased to be able to add the Wilson databases into the EBSCO Discovery Service search experience”

Harry Regan, President & CEO for Wilson, commented, “EBSCO and H.W. Wilson have been engaged as business partners for a number of years and are now officially operating as one.  The result will be a broader and deeper range of products and services for the library reference community with significantly added value. Both companies have had separate, distinctive histories, but have always shared a common commitment for the highest order of customer satisfaction.”

Wilson’s Vice President of Indexing & Editorial Services, Mark Gauthier, is excited about the opportunities that lie ahead.  “As a company, Wilson has focused heavily on the quality of our indexing and how it impacts the search experience. With EBSCOhost full-text and abstract/index  databases, along with EBSCO Discovery Service, EBSCO is really focusing on detailed editorial value to truly take its services to new levels.  We’re excited about the possibilities and what we can do together to benefit the research experience for libraries.”

All Wilson indexing, abstracts and full text will be fully searchable via EBSCO Discovery Service for subscribers of Wilson databases.  The addition of Wilson’s robust abstract/index records and unique full text will strengthen EBSCO Discovery Service.

Wilson databases will be loaded onto EBSCOhost over the coming months.   EBSCO will continue to maintain WilsonWeb until such time that all Wilson databases are available on EBSCOhost and customers have been transitioned to EBSCOhost.

Giving Back to the Library Community
Both EBSCO and The H.W. Wilson Foundation have a long-standing tradition of providing financial and other support for libraries and library organizations.  The H.W. Wilson Foundation plans to continue its commitment to its mission of supporting libraries and librarianship, as evidenced by its numerous grants and long standing support of the John Cotton Dana Award.