Institute for Defense Analyses
Federated searching
“Won’t it be Wonderful There”Won't it be wonderful there.....
Having no burdens to bear.....
Joyously singing......
With heartbells all ringing....
O won't it be wonderful there?......
“Just Over in the Glory Land”Just over in the glory land,
I’ll join the happy angel band,Just over in the glory land;
Just over in the glory land,There with the mighty host I’ll stand,Just over in the glory land!
Environment• 22,000 printed volumes
• 75,000 e-books– Books 24x7 (aggregator)– Ebrary (aggregator)– Elsevier (all)– Springer-Verlag and Kluwer (all)– Wiley (all)
• 80 site licenses
“Political” Environment• Library receives excellent support
– Monetarily– From top leadership– From research staff
• Partners with IT– A trusted partner– Helps populate the intranet– Help manage collaboration tool (SharePoint)
Previous Tools• Library catalog
• Journal finder
• EBSCOhost– Stocked with 15 licensed databases (INSPEC,
Medline, PsycINFO, etc.)– Underlying CrossRef linking utilized– Proved the concept!
Federated Searching• Corporate concept with top billing
• Came about as part of wholesale revision of intranet and creation of digital library
• All products seemed the same (Sirsi, WebFeat, Central Search, etc.)
• Engaged WebFeat
Philosophy…To duplicate as much of the print-world
environment as possible, with a balanced mix of…
• Encyclopedias
• Books
• Journals and conference proceedings
• “Other”
70 targets• Books
– Encyclopedias and general reference– Research
• Journals and conference proceedings
• Abstracting and indexing services
• General databases
What we left out• Intranet (due to information security
concerns)
• Library catalog (due to firewall issues)
Implementation: Rocky!• Two launch dates missed
• IP address for vendors was wrong!
• No sense of process or procedure
• Single target or multiple targets?– CRC Press: 9 targets, not one (+$5,000)– EBSCO: 15 targets, not one (+$9,000)
• What about large, complex sites?
Service: Questionable!• Service failed; no backup at WebFeat
• Targets fail; we must ascertain
• Searching across all targets simultaneously: good or bad?
Popularity: It isn’t!• WebFeat is not popular (averages 10
searches per day)
• Change of culture not happening
• Slowest common denominator rules the roost (for us it is Oxford Reference Collection)
• Some targets do not respond well (CQ)
June-September Usage345: Google163: JSTOR99: Ebrary61: OCLC FirstSearch WorldCat42: Encyclopaedia Britannica39: EBSCOhost (all totaled)38: American Physical Society37: DTIC
ParadoxWhy are the most popular databases in our
organization faring the worst in WebFeat?
Management tool?• Statistics cannot offer big picture
• No current collection development uses
The Future• Federated searching will remain
• May switch to WebFeat Express (“lite”)
• Tool may change
• Vivisimo may be engaged as well– Library catalog– Intranet– Internet– Federated searching
Contact InformationBradley E. Gernand
Library Manager
Institute for Defense Analyses
703-845-2405; [email protected]