[Web4lib] Federated search products

[John Weible]

Not quite.  Our consortium purchased WebFeat via Dynix and we are now 
implementing it.  Dynix has not done any work on top of WebFeat nor does 
WebFeat provide any APIs or other mechanisms for us to build around its 
search engine in the fashion described with MetaLib X-Server.

John Weible
Head of Library Systems
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
email: jweible at uiuc.edu  phone: 217-244-4688



Jim Campbell wrote:

>Actually a lot of vendors are already using this approach, letting
>MuseGlobal or WebFeat maintain the connections and then building an
>interface on top.  Sirsi, Endeavor, Innovative, Ovid, etc have all done that
>with Muse; Dynix, etc. with WebFeat. 
>
>- Jim Campbell
>Campbell at Virginia.edu
> 
>
>  
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org 
>>[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of David Walker
>>Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 6:46 PM
>>To: Dale Askey; web4lib at webjunction.org
>>Subject: RE: [Web4lib] Federated search products
>>
>>    
>>
>>>>Even when [the Metalib X-Server] does get there, however, who will 
>>>>have the time and skills to build an interface essentially from 
>>>>scratch. We don't.
>>>>        
>>>>
>>Well, I guess we do, since we are building an interface from 
>>scratch here at Cal State San Marcos using the Metalib 
>>X-Server -- as are three or four other libraries.
>>
>>But we are an early adopter of the X-Server.  As soon as we 
>>finish our work here at San Marcos, we'll make our code open 
>>source (and I hope the other X-Server libraries will as 
>>well), so that new libraries who are interested in using the 
>>Metalib X-Server can start building their interfaces from . . 
>>. well, some point after scratch.
>>
>>It's actually not that difficult to make an interface against 
>>an XML-based API.  A little code to pass information back and 
>>forth and XSLT to make it pretty.
>>
>>So I guess there's actually a middle point between commercial 
>>and open source metasearch system -- and that is to have a 
>>group of libraries sharing open source code for the interface 
>>to a system, while the vendor maintains the underlying 
>>application and knowledgebase.
>>
>>I think that can actually work out really well.  If I am 
>>going to spend my time working on a metasearch system and 
>>sharing code, I would much rather spend it on the interface 
>>(which is the most important part of the system) than 
>>building Z39.50 and other types of connections.
>>
>>
>>--Dave
>>
>>=================
>>David Walker
>>Web Development Librarian
>>Library
>>Cal State San Marcos
>>760-750-4379
>>=================
>>  
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>>
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