[Web4lib] Federated search applications-why did you choose?

[McHale, Nina]

Agreed, vendors should indeed allow for this kind of customizable
interface design; WebFeat was very flexible this way, too, which was one
of the reasons it we selected it at my former place of employment in
2003. I never thought that how patrons viewed search interfaces mattered
that much until an undergrad who knew I was the library webmaster asked
me, "Why did you design LexisNexis and InfoTrac so differently?"
Probably still the most enlightening patron comment I've heard, and on a
number of levels!

Nina

Nina McHale, MA/MSLS
Web Services Librarian
Auraria Library

Serving the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences
Center-Downtown Campus,
Metropolitan State College
and the Community College of Denver

1100 Lawrence Street
Denver, Colorado 80204
303-556-4729

nina.mchale at cudenver.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Gimon, Charles A
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 12:35 PM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] Federated search applications-why did you choose?

One specific thing that was really nice about Central Search from
Serials Solutions is that they support a variety of options for
incorporating the look, feel and navigation of your existing web
presence into their product. We can keep files with chunks of html,
images and stylesheets on our regular webserver that get referenced for
presentation of Central Search search results. More vendors should do
things this way.

--Charles Gimon
  Web Coordinator
  Minneapolis Public Library


-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Pons, Lisa
(ponslm)
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 12:06 PM
To: Web4Lib
Subject: [Web4lib] Federated search applications-why did you choose?


 
We are in the process of choosing a federated search product. I am
wondering if those on the list could detail why they went with one
vendor over another?

Additionally, what feature(s) has been the best received?

How have staff received these?

We're also interested in limitations-for example, if one cluster of
databases can only include 8 databases, is this perceived as a drawback?

How much time is spent maintaining the product?

Thanks in advance!

Lisa Pons-Haitz
University of Cincinnati _______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4lib at webjunction.org
http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4lib at webjunction.org
http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/