or, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Fear and Loathing at a Public Library Reference Desk


CIL2007 Wednesday – Federated Searching

   April 19th, 2007 Brian Herzog

The final session in the "tailoring library services to patrons needs, based on patron input" theme was on Federated Searching, led by Frank Cervone (Northwestern Univ.) and Jeff Wisniewski (Univ. of Pittsburg).

They overviewed the various players in the federated search market, which were numerous. Their basic message is that this field is constantly changing, and it is difficult to keep up with all the mergers and acquisitions and name changes; but, that is no reason it not get involved. This is the type of searching our patrons need, so picking one tool and going with it is the best thing for libraries to do.

Current players in this market are:

Aquabrowser, cil 2007, cil2007, CSA Illumina, Encore, Ex Libris, federated searching, Frank Cervone, Fretwell Downing, Grokker, Jeff Wisniewski, libraries, library, Ovid Searcher, public libraries, public library, Serial Solutions, WebFeat



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