Institute for Defense Analyses Federated searching.

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]