DISCOVER/EBSCOhost databases problems 6th July

We are having some problems today with DISCOVER and EBSCOhost databases.

It seems to be working better in Edge than Chrome so it's worth switching browsers if you can.

EBSCO are working to fix the issue as soon as possible.

Problems with DISCOVER and EBSCOhost resources 9th June

EBSCO have reported some issues this morning which are affecting multiple databases including DISCOVER. They are working on fixing this as soon as possible.

Resources affected could include: 

Academic Search Complete, AMED, Art Full Text, British Education Index, Business Source Premier, Child Development & Adolescent Studies, CINAHL Ultimate, Communication & Mass Media Complete, Education Abstracts, Education Research Complete, Educational Administration Abstracts, ERIC, Global Health, GreenFILE, Hospitality and Tourism Complete, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, MEDLINE, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, PsycTESTS, Regional Business News, SocIndex with Full Text, SPORTDiscus with Full Text, Teacher Reference Center, Ejournals from EBSCO and EBSCO ebook collection.

DISCOVER and EBSCOhost databases at risk 9th January 2026

We have been warned of system maintenance which will affect DISCOVER and EBSCOhost databases, between 11am and 1pm, 9th January 2026. At some point during this time you may lose access to these databases, but access should be restored after 10 minutes. 

Databases affected include:

DISCOVER

Academic Search Complete

AMED

APA PsycARTICLES

APA PsycINFO

APA PsycTESTS

Art Full Text

British Education Index

Business Source Premier

CINAHL

Communication and Mass Media Complete

EBSCO Ebooks including Harvard Business ebooks

Education Research Complete

Global Health

Hospitality and Tourism Complete

Medline

SocINDEX

SPORTDiscus

DISCOVER and EBSCOhost Research Databases - scheduled maintenance 1st August

We've been warned of upcoming maintenance that will affect both DISCOVER and EBSCOhost Research Databases on Friday 1st August, from 11am - 1pm. During this time you may lose access for up to 10 minutes. 

EBSCOhost research database user interface (UI) upgrade - 5th August

On 5^th August 2025, the EBSCOhost research database user interface (UI) is being upgraded.  This upgrade will affect individual EBSCO databases such as Medline, CINAHL, APA PsycINFO, Business Source Premier and Education Research Complete.  The new interface will include new features and has been redesigned to improve the user experience and make searching easier. Visually it will look much like DISCOVER. Further information on the changes can be found in these FAQs and Quick Start Guide.

You do not need to do anything to prepare for this upgrade and we are not anticipating any loss of service or data. However, if you have articles saved in your EBSCOhost you may wish to create a backup if you have not already done so by  exporting the data to a bibliographic manager such as RefWorks. If you would like help backing up your data or have any queries or concerns about the change, please email librarians@beds.ac.uk

DISCOVER/EBSCOhost research databases maintenance 21st March

EBSCO have warned us there may be disruption to our DISCOVER platform and EBSCOhost research databases today between 11am and 12 noon

the following features may be unavailable during the maintenance window:

Classic user interfaces (EBSCOhost)
* Folders/Custom Folders
* Search and journal alerts
* Saved searches
* Saved persistent links
* Saved preferences

New user interfaces (EBSCO Mobile app, Discover)
* Projects (including Add to project feature)
* Saved articles (including the ability to save articles to the Dashboard)
* Saved searches
* Liked items

DISCOVER and EBSCOhost databases at risk 11am to 12 noon, Tuesday 19th March

EBSCO have warned us there may be disruption to our DISCOVER platform and EBSCOhost research databases today between 11am and 12 noon

the following features may be unavailable during the maintenance window:

Classic user interfaces (EBSCOhost)
* Folders/Custom Folders
* Search and journal alerts
* Saved searches
* Saved persistent links
* Saved preferences

New user interfaces (EBSCO Mobile app, Discover)
* Projects (including Add to project feature)
* Saved articles (including the ability to save articles to the Dashboard)
* Saved searches
* Liked items

DISCOVER and EBSCO database problems - resolved

 You should now be able to access DISCOVER and EBSCO databases as normal - the problem has been fixed.

DISCOVER and EBSCO database problems

 We are currently having problems accessing DISCOVER and EBSCO databases. 

We have reported this to our supplier and hope that it will be fixed soon.

Consenting to EBSCO's data retention policy before accessing DISCOVER folder

We've had some reports recently of students not accepting EBSCO's Personal Data Retention and Usage statement below. These students now cannot access DISCOVER.

Please be aware that you do need to accept the policy in order to benefit from single sign on to EBSCO resources. If you do object, you can access DISCOVER via this alternative link, but will not get any folder or personalisation functionality. There is further information direct from EBSCO here.

Discover/EBSCOhost folders problem

We're having problems with accessing folders in Discover/other EBSCOhost databases this morning. This has been reported to EBSCO and we hope it will be resolved soon.

DISCOVER, EBSCOhost and Full Text Finder https change complete (29th August)

DISCOVER, EBSCOhost databases and Full Text Finder have now been switched over to secure https. We believe they are working correctly and you should not notice any difference, existing links will redirect automatically. If you do spot anything not working as it should, please let us know and we will investigate.

DISCOVER mobile access

DISCOVER (and other EBSCO databases) has just been refreshed to make it easier to access on your mobile device.

In an effort to improve and enhance the user experience, several of our core products now offer a fully responsive web experience. At first glance you will notice larger buttons, bigger text links and more white space. This allows for easier navigation on a smaller screen, while allowing us to provide a cleaner, more modern look.

With this update, users are now able to access content from their mobile devices with the same features and functionality available to them on desktop computers. Simply log in to DISCOVER  or EBSCO databases from any device.

DISCOVER - geography limiter

Some of you have noticed that the Geography limiter has disappeared from DISCOVER and the other EBSCO databases. This is due to a fault in EBSCO's software and they are working to restore it. They have warned us that it may not be fixed before April. In the meantime, we advise that you use keywords (eg "united kingdom" and "great britain") to focus your search and exclude results from other countries.

Discover system upgrade - possible error message if trying to open items in a new tab

Over the next few weeks EBSCO will be performing an important upgrade to the results page infrastructure for DISCOVER and EBSCOhost Research Databases. During this time, and under certain circumstances, you may see the following message when attempting to read an article:

This item cannot be opened in a new tab. To view it, return to search results and select the link there. We apologize for this inconvenience.

The message will display when a user right-clicks to open an article from the results page to open it in a new tab, rather than clicking to read the article from the original browse.