Help! I want to search my database from the Net.

[Craig Symington]

Hi Everyone,

I stumbled across your mailing list and was hoping someone might be able
to help me out.  I searched your archives, but didn't find what I was
looking for...My questions is...

My employer, the Lakehead Board of Education, would like to make all of
our 42 school libraries searchable from the net.  We currently have a
home-grown, VAX based system that barely meets our needs.  We have our
own indexing algorithms and search software.  We would like to buy a
better search engine that is faster and more flexible.  We require the
ability to do word stemming.  A "thesaurus/is similiar" feature would be
a nice asset too.  All of our schools will have Internet access soon and
most of the teachers are buying their own home Internet feeds.  It only
makes sense for us to make our collections searchable from the Internet.
When (or if) we find a suitable search engine, we plan to re-build the
rest of the library software to a Windows based client/server topology.

If you are wondering why we don't buy an entire Library system like
Dynix of Geac, it is the cost.  We don't have big $$$ to pay for a new
system.  Believe it or not, it is more finacially viable to stick to
maintaining and developing what we have.  Besides, the users like the
flexibility of customizing the software.

Anyways...I am having a difficult time finding a suitable search engine.
Can someone please help?!

Craig Symington
CSYMINGTON at lakehd.lhbe.edu.on.ca
Programmer/Analyst
Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada