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Metasearching: The Promise and Peril
Roy Tennant
Outline Why Metasearching?
– The Problem– The Promise– Principles
Metasearching in Libraries Today Issues Present Challenges and Possible
Futures
The Problem Most users do not care where the information
they need comes from, or who provides it…nor should they have to
But our systems presently require them to know:– How to select one or more databases– How to get to them– How to use the unique search options for each
How can we create systems that minimize what the user needs to know to get what they want?
The Promise of Metasearching The “Holy Grail” of resource
discovery: simple to use one-stop shopping
The simplification of a formerly complex activity (put the complexity in the back end, not the front)
Allows the user to focus on evaluating results, not figuring out where to search
Principles
Only librarians like to search, everyone else likes to find
All things being equal, one place to search is better than two or more
“Good enough” is often just that The size of the result set isn’t as
important as how the results are displayed (e.g., relevance)
Principles
Our ability to create effective one-stop searching is dependent on our ability to appropriately target user needs
Services should be placed as close to the user as possible
http://searchlight.cdlib.org/cgi-bin/searchlight
Source: ARL Statistics
Lessons from SearchLight Metasearching is not for everyone or every
purpose… …but metasearching is still worth doing (it
serves particular needs and audiences) For a large research library,
metasearching is best focused on particular needs (e.g., “a few good things”) or subject areas (e.g., Biology)
CDL Metasearch Infrastructure Project
Web site
No. Author Title Year Source Actions
1. Watson JD; Molecular structure of nucleic 1953 Nature [via Expanded View full text Crick, FH acids. A structure for Academic ASAP]
deoxyribose nucleic acid. [details] [basket]
2. Miller GA The magical number seven plus 1956 Psychol Rev [via Expanded View full textor minus two: some limits on our Academic ASAP]capacity for processing information. [details]
[basket]
3. Bush, Vannevar As we may think 1945 The Atlantic [via Google] View full text
[details] [basket]
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UserInterfacesoftware
Initiates search
Sends search to
MetasearchSoftware
Sends search to
DatabaseAdvisor Tool
Performs search, identifies top 2-3 DBs, writes out file referenced by results page
Launches
multiple
searches
Receives
results
Merges, dedupe
sresults
Buildsdisplay
Sends mergeddisplay to
Database Advisor Service
Technical Underpinnings Structured query/response methods:
– Z39.50– SRU/SRW, the “next generation” (XML Web
Services) version of Z39.50– XML Gateways (proprietary XML APIs)
Unstructured query/response:– URL packing and HTML screen scraping
Record merging and de-duping Ranking (mostly a dream) OpenURL support (e.g., SFX)
Software Provider Issues Access management Search mapping Unreliability of targets Systems that don’t support an API (that
must be screen-scraped) Inadequate result data for good:
– Deduping– Ranking
Database Provider Issues
Access control (robust authentication and authorization)
Load Inappropriate searches (searching
databases that don’t apply) Branding and “unfair” deduping
Library Issues
Selecting the right system Cost (both upfront and ongoing) System design and implementation System maintenance
– Ability to add new resources/targets– Ease of interface changes– Ease of upgrades
User Issues What must I go through before hitting the search
button? How difficult is it to review results? Are results ranked by relevance? (that will be my
assumption) Will I get buried? (too many sources, too many
results?) Do I have methods to easily focus in on what I want? Once I find what I want, can I get to the full-text with
a click? Can I copy a citation and put it in my paper?
Present Challenges & Possible Futures
Software still needs improvement (duh) Some databases are still not searchable If you create a “family” of portals, how does
one find the right portal to search? A meta-metasearch?
We can learn from other systems (e.g., redlightgreen)
Standards are on the way (e.g., NISO)