Finding & Funding a Federated Search Engine Product – Are We There Yet?
By Barbara Platts, MLIS, AHIP
Munson Healthcare
Traverse City, MI
My 3-year journey to explore the feasibility of embracing federated search engine technology, recently culmunated with a trip to the 2008 Computers in Libraries Conference (CIL) in Arlington, Virginia. Thanks to the generous support of a GMR Professional Development Award, I was able to attend a number of sessions specifically related to current federated search engine applications. In addition, I was able to speak with identified vendors to set up trials upon my return from the conference, and network with colleagues who use this technology.
My goal in attending the conference was to revisit the concept of implementing federated search engine technology in a hospital setting. Challenged by our end-user’s habits of exclusively searching one or two products, the driving force in pursuing this technology was twofold: 1) to subtly nudge our customers into exploring the vast array of other online content provided by the library, and 2) to seamlessly integrate all of our vendor products into one search and retrieval system.
Past attendance at a CIL conference, provided information about federated search engines and their effectiveness in academic library settings. Previous applications contained many “bells and whistles” not suitable, functional, or financially viable, for a small or medium hospital library. So my journey continued…
This time around, I came back armed with a specific plan. I set up a trial with Serials Solutions and WebFeat, two products that looked promising. After weeks of tweaking and fine-tuning the trials, neither product proved viable. One significant obstacle - the search engine technology uses 1-2 licenses in order to function. Consequently, frequent “lock outs” will occur of you have less than a 5 concurrent user license for any given product. For the small to medium size hospital library, having more than a 5 concurrent user license is often cost prohibitive.
In summary, attending the conference was very valuable. It provided knowledge to support the decision making process in implementing a federated search engine product. Next up, the exploration of the “Infobutton” concept, a tool that allows search and retrieval from within the electronic medical record.
This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal Funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. N01-LM-6-3503 with the University of Illinois at Chicago.
June 11th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Good insight; I do not always think about the limited license lockout. As you probably already know, Serials Solutions and WebFeat have merged. I am waiting to see what the next generation of Federated Searching looks like - should be interesting!
June 13th, 2008 at 7:17 am
We have had Serials Solutions 360 Search for about a year and a half. I did not think about the concurrent user license issue. However, the only products that we have only one license for are OVID journals and we have fewer of these than we used to. Thanks for the insight.