How to configure an EBSCO Feed

Last updated on April 29, 2025

About EBSCO Feeds

EBSCOhost is a powerful online research platform provided by EBSCO Information Services, widely used by academic institutions, libraries, and researchers for accessing a wide range of scholarly content. It serves as a gateway to numerous databases and resources across various fields, including:

Academic Journals: Access to peer-reviewed articles from multiple disciplines.
eBooks: A large selection of electronic books across various topics.
Magazines and Newspapers: Articles from reputable periodicals and news outlets.
Historical Archives: Collections of historical documents and primary sources.
Industry Reports: Market analysis and professional trade publications.

EBSCOhost allows for advanced search capabilities, including Boolean operators, filters for specific content types, and options for saving or exporting references. Many libraries and educational institutions provide access to EBSCOhost as part of their resource offerings.

Introduction

An EBSCO subscription is required for your organization to use this service. InfoDesk will activate subscription in your portal using the credentials provided by EBSCO.

The EBSCO feeds can be created once the EBSCO is enabled in the portal

To connect an EBSCO feed to your Inbox, follow these steps:

Navigate to Inboxes and open your Inbox. Select InfoLab from the More menu on the far right in the top menu of the inbox.
Click the New Feed button and select the EBSCO feed in the drop-down menu.
Alternatively, click the New Feed button on the connectors tile to go to the Preview and Add Filter page, where you can apply filters to select specific content from EBSCO.

Preview and filter the EBSCO feed

Use the Filter menu to the left to add filters to your feed.

The filter menu offers various search options that can be combined to optimize your search results and filter. These options include a free text search and EBSCO specific filters and facets.
- To search for specific keywords or phrases, use the search bars under the Text section, which includes Title, and Description.
- To narrow down the search, use the facets under the EBSCO filters along with the AND, OR, and NOT operators to further refine your search. Note that the filters and facets are only enabled when content matches the filters.
  
  Read more about the filter options under the “Filter Options” section below. More information about combining keywords and creating search strings is available in Help.
Preview the filter result in the Preview Post list and adjust your filter options until you are satisfied with the outcome.

The chart above the post list displays the number of retrieved posts within the specified Time period, providing an estimate of the amount of information your feed will generate over time. You can change the time period by clicking the Calendar button above the chart.

Red bars indicate that your feed will generate more information than is allowed in your inbox. Change your filters until the bars are all yellow.

3. When ready click the Save button to save your changes. Alternatively, you can click the Next button to proceed to the Settings page.

- On the Settings page, you can change the feed name, add a description of the feed, and change the target inbox.
- Optionally: Check the Restricted checkbox to prevent others from updating the feed. When restricted a padlock icon will be shown on the Feed in InfoLab.
- Click Save to save your changes. Your feed is now connected to your inbox and available from the Feed page in InfoLab.

Filter Options

This section contains information about the Filter options for the EBSCO Select feeds.

The filter menu offers various search options that can be combined to optimize your search results.

These options include free text search, Advanced Query and EBSCO specific filters. Most of the filters provide predefined facet options that you can select from to specify your filter. Note that filters and facets are only enabled when content matches the filters.

Use the AND, OR, and NOT operators to refine your search further.

Use the OR operator to include one or the other facet within a filter category. This gives a wide search.
Use the AND operator to require that both facets are included within a filter category. This gives a narrow search.
Use the NOT operator to exclude specified facets within a filter category.

Your search result will be displayed above the bar chart to provide an overview of your chosen filters. With more than four facet buttons, click the Show more button to view all facets.

If the post list view is empty, no content matches your search within the set time period or filters. Change the Time period or adjust the filters and preview the result. The default period is “Past week”.

Advanced Query

The Advanced Query Filter empowers you to craft highly specific search queries and allows you to target your search by entering criteria directly for each supported indexed field. Use the advanced Query to refine your search results and pinpoint the exact information you require.

Using the Advanced Query Filters

Define a field search operation using fieldName:searchExpression syntax. The search expression can be a single word, a phrase, or a more complex expression (in parentheses), optionally with Boolean operators.

For example:

title:(federal NOT local)
abstract:("FDA" "EMEA")

The field specified in fieldName:searchExpression must be an indexed field. Click the info button in the Advanced Query filter to view the supported fields.

Text Filter

The Text filter allows for free text searches. You can use a single keyword, combine several keywords, or create a complete search string.

You can choose to search in the Title or Description depending on how wide or narrow your filter to be.

Title: Only include content matching your search query in the article title. This is the narrowest text search.

Description: Search in the article Description for a broader search.

Predefined Filters and facets

The EBSCO filter menu includes a range of predefined filter and facet options. Use the filter search bar and then click on the facet buttons to set your filter.

Publication: Search for publication or use the predefined publication facets to filter by. Click "Show more" to view all options.

Authors: Search for authors or use the predefined author facets to filter by. Click "Show more" to view all options.

Subjects: Search for subjects or use the predefined subjects facets to filter by. Click "Show more" to view all options.

Publication Type: Search for publication type or use the predefined publication type facets to filter by. Click "Show more" to view all options.

Document Type: Search for document type or use the predefined publication type facets to filter by. Click "Show more" to view all options.

Language: Search by language names or use the predefined facets to filter by. Click on “Show more” to view all the options.

Databases: Search by databases names or use the predefined facets to filter by. Click on “Show more” to view all the options.

Best Practices

Text Query

A good start when filtering content is to start with a text query.

You can use one single keyword, several keywords or create a complete search string. You can read more about how to combine keywords and create search strings in Help.

Depending on how wide or narrow the search you would like to do, you can search in only Title or the Description.

Filters and facets

Use predefined filters and facets to specify your search. Use the filters that best match your query. Use the AND, OR and NOT operators to refine your search.

The list of posts that appears when you are adding filters allows you to preview the filters before applying them. Go through the preview post list to make sure that the posts retrieved by the filter meets your expectations.

Optionally use additional filters and facets to refine your search.

Good to Know

Time Period

When choosing the Time Period for the preview post list, you have the option of selecting from the past 24 hours, past week, past month, Past three months, past six months. The default time period is the past week.

Max Number of Posts

If your filter retrieves more posts than allowed, the chart bars will turn red, and you will be prompted to adjust your filter.

Note that the maximum number of posts accepted in Inboxes is 100 posts per day.

Max number of posts.png

Categories Displayed on Posts in the Preview Post list

The categories shown on the posts in the preview post list on the Preview and filter page in InfoLab are only used in InfoLab and will not follow the posts to the Inboxes.

Text Query Highlights

Words matching the text query keywords are highlighted in the title and article content in the preview post list to assist you in reviewing the articles and their relevance.

Manage EBSCO Feeds

You can manage all your feeds from the InfoLab Feeds page.

To manage your feeds, follow these steps:

Navigate to the InfoLab Feeds page from the main menu or start from your Inbox and select InfoLab from the More menu.
Use the search bar at the top of the page to find your feed.
Click the Menu button to the far right on the feed row to open the menu.
Select Edit to open the "Preview and add Filter" page, and edit the feed. In the "Preview and filter" section, you can find more instructions on how to edit a feed.
Select Set Automatic Categorization to tag all posts from this feed automatically. Use the search bar or open the taxonomy to find and select categories. Press Save.
Select Deactivate to pause your feed. A pause button will appear on the feed, and the feed will stop retrieving posts to your inbox. Clicking Activate in the feed menu will reactivate the feed.
To change the inbox where the feed is directed, click on Select Inbox and select another inbox.
Select Delete to delete the feed from InfoLab.