Cross-database Search Tools Summary

[Roy Tennant]

On August 22 (see 
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0108/0187.html), I posted 
a question regarding cross-database search tools. For this particular 
query I was interested in web-based services that can accept one 
query, send it out to multiple databases and returned organized 
results to the user. I was not interested in web-only applications 
such as metasearch engines, nor was I interested in client-side 
applications.

Below is the summary of what I found. The first section are services 
created by libraries on behalf of their users, and the second section 
are tools that may be applicable for creating such services. Thanks 
to everyone who supplied suggestions.
Roy

Cross-Database Search Services

California Digital Library - Searchlight
http://searchlight.cdlib.org/cgi-bin/searchlight
http://www.cdlib.org/hlp/searchlight/credits.html for more information

King County Library System (WA) - KCLS Library Search (using WebFeat, 
see Tools below)
http://www.kcls.org/
http://www.kcls.org/wf/webfeatfaq.html for more information

Los Alamos National Lab - Flashpoint
http://flashpoint.lanl.gov/
http://lib-www.lanl.gov/lww/flashpoint.htm for more information
Contact: Marie Harper, mharper at lanl.gov

National Library of Medicine - Gateway
http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/
http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/gw/Cmd?Overview.x for more information

National University of Mexico (UNAM) - Hermes (in development)
http://www.ibt.unam.mx/biblioteca/

OhioLink - In development
Contact: Thomas Dowling, tdowling at ohiolink.edu

University of Arizona - Multi-SEARCH
http://www.library.arizona.edu/indexes/links/multisearch.shtml
Contact: Jeremy Frumkin, frumkinj at u.library.arizona.edu

University of Illinois, Chicago - qUICsearch (using WebFeat)
http://quicsearch.lib.uic.edu/

University of Texas Health Science Center - SUMSearch
http://sumsearch.uthscsa.edu/


Cross-Database Search Tools

Blue Angel - MetaStar (for Z39.50 data sources)
http://www.blueangeltech.com/

Endeavor ENCompass
http://www.endinfosys.com/encompass.htm

ExLibris - MetaLib
http://www.exlibris-usa.com/metalib/
[Curtin University, http://lisweb.curtin.edu.au/ is presently 
installing this product, contact Peter Green <P.Green at curtin.edu.au>]

Fretwell-Downing - Zportal
http://www.fdgroup.com/fdi/zportal/about.html

Muse
http://www.museglobal.com/

OCLC - SiteSearch (for Z39.50 resources, and now in "limbo")
http://www.oclc.org/oclc/menu/site.htm

WebFeat
http://www.webfeat.org/

The following were suggested as cross-database search tools, but have 
not been verified to be appropriate for the needs specified in my 
query:

BrightPlanet - DeepWeb Directory
http://brightplanet.com/products/dwd.asp

Copernic - Aggregator
http://www.copernic.com/products/aggregator/