History with Federated Searching

1
History with Federated Searching

• 2 ½ years ago acquired Encompass
• Named it Multisearch
• Our Approach

2
Selection of Databases

• Limited to databases with z39.50 connectors, xml
  gateway.
• Did not included screen scraping
• Based selections on the way the connectors
  performed.
• Did not include databases with su limits
• No more than 6-8 databases

3
Implementation Approaches

• General databases search (Google approach)
• Subject (i.e. Business, English)
• Course (i.e. English 112)
• Specialized searches (i.e. Newspapers, Canadiana)
  
• User-selected metasearching user could select
  from a range enabled databases.
• Top databases
• Identified top databases based on usage, limited
  to those with z39.50 connectors, xml connectors,
  no su limits

4
Top 10 databases

• Limited by no su limits and those selection
  factors
• EBSCO, GALE, Proquest, WilsonWeb, OCLC,
  Silverplatter, ISI
• a. Top 10
• Academic Search Premier (EBSCO)
• Medline (OVID)
• Web of Science (ISI)
• PsycInfo (EBSCO)
• PubMed
• CINAHL (OVID)
• MLA (Silverplatter)
• ERIC (EBSCO)
• LexisNexis
• ABI Inform (Proquest)

5

• b. Top 10 General Dbs
• Academic Search Premier (EBSCO)
• Web of Science (ISI)
• ABI Inform (Proquest)
• Sciences Indexes (WilsonWeb)
• Humanities and Social Sciences Index (WilsonWeb)
• Canadian Periodical Index CPI. Q. (Gale)
• CBCA (Proquest)
• Lexis Nexis
• First Search (OCLC)
• ProceedingsFirst (OCLC)

6
1st Year Approach (1st year science 1st year
Arts)

• Academic Search Premier (EBSCO)
• PsychInfo (EBSCO)
• Lexis Nexis
• CBCA (Proquest)
• Readers Guide (WilsonWeb)
• CPI.Q (Gale)
• Arts Index (WilsonWeb)
• General Science Index (WilsonWeb)
• Humanities Index (WilsonWeb)
• FirstSearch (OCLC)

7
Subject/Topic Approach

• Canadiana
• CPI.Q (Gale)
• CBCA Complete (Proquest)
• Microlog (UBC catalogue)
• Canadian Digital Collections
• Education
• Academic Search Premier (Proquest)
• Education Index Full Text (WilsonWeb)
• ERIC (EBSCO)
• PsycINFO (EBSCO)
• CBCA Fulltext Education (Proquest)
• Repere (Proquest)

8

• Business
• ABI Inform (Proquest)
• Business Source Elite (EBSCO)
• Lexis Nexis
• CBCA (Proquest)
• Newspaper Indexes
• CBCA (Proquest)
• Lexis Nexis
• ABI Inform (Proquest)
• Citation Index (ISI)

9

• English
• MLA (Silverplatter)
• Academic Search Premier (EBSCO)
• Humanities Index (WilsonWeb)
• CPQ.I (Gale)
• CBCA (Proquest)
• American Humanities Index (EBSCO)
• Arts Humanities

10
Where to put it on the Website

• Outside Search box
• General Database Search
• (http//toby.library.ubc.ca/webpage/webpage.cfm?id
  427)
• Inside box
• Subject page
• http//toby.library.ubc.ca/subjects/subjpage1.cfm?
  id797
• http//toby.library.ubc.ca/webpage/webpage.cfm?id
  414

11
Created a template

• We created a template so that subject librarians
  could create their own search box, and their own
  selection of databases from a list.

12
Conclusion Lessons Learned

• Performance issues
• No su limits meant few science dbs no music dbs.
• Behind the scenes - Knowledge base set up
• Many connectors not supported
• Vendor support important

13
Endeavor
Never mind

• ENCompass
• LinkFinderPlus
• Have abandoned in-house development of federated
  search/OpenURL
• Products based on TDNet products
• Discovery Finder
• http//www.endinfosys.com/software/finder.html
• Discovery Resolver
• http//www.endinfosys.com/software/resolver.html
• All support ends in Q1 2008