Meta-search engines

[Karim Boughida]

Hi Fritzi and all,

[...]
> We are aware of several ILS vendor-provided meta-search software products:
> ENCompass -- from Endeavor SFX -- from ExLibris ? -- from OCLC
> (sorry, I forgot the name, it was on this list earlier last
> month).
> We want to be able to simultaneously search MARC, Dublin Core,
> XML, TEI, EAD at least

Guys...hold your flames, this is not a Sales pitch !
I am replying to Frtizi's question !!

You can search simultaneously MARC, Dublin Core, XML, TEI,
EAD with ENCompass. ENCompass is a Digital Library (DL)
product. ENCompass' mission is "unifying access" to
simultaneous and heterogeneous sources (or databases).
ENCompass is a REAL product right now developed with
Cornell University (see my email July 21, 2000).

Actually, in the ILS World I don't think we have a real
competitor (I'd love to hear some news from them). Among
perceived competitors we have SFX. SFX is a proprietary
reference-linking product (vs. CrossRef and LinkBaton)
and not a complete Digital Library product. OCLC SiteSearch
family of products is essentially Z39.50 Server System. I am
not sure of non-MARC and XML support. In their corporate site
OCLC SiteSearch is presented as a VIRTUAL Electronic Library
which is different from a digital library concept !

Webfeat is a PORTAL meant for business world. Their
level of granularity is lower than in the Academic arena.

IMHO, a digital library product is a single point of
access to disparate resources (vs. collections as a
“silos” in a portal environment).

Tough a canonical definition does not exist. The DL field
is a new one !

The last question: Is ENCompass a metacrawler/metasearch
or a web search engine?

R.Basch has defined a metasearch tool as an “umbrella” site,
where the user enters a query once. In this case ENCompass
is a metasearch engine but in its narrower definition
ENCompass is not a metasearch (vs. All-in-One Search,
Proteus, metacrawler, etc.).

For a difference between a DL and a search engine,
there is an interesting article at the last IFLA Jerusalem
August 2000 : Digital libraries on the Internet by Taly
Sharon & Ariel J. Frank:
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla66/papers/029-142e.htm

Regards,

Karim Boughida
ENCompass Product Manager
Endeavor Information Systems
www.endinfosys.com
boughida at endinfosys.com

p.s.: usual disclaimer....The opinion expressed above ....