[Web4lib] Does anyone need a federated OPAC search?

[Peter Noerr]

Ross, 

Can you expound a bit on the last paragraph - about how awful the commercial fed search systems are - and the lack of imagination (mostly the lack of imagination)?

[For some reason this thread of emails is arriving in reverse order (and I still haven't got the 1:15PM from Tim from which you snip), so I am asking this a bit blind, as it may have been covered already.]

I'm not asking for a rant, but some of the points where you think they/we (yes I'm one) fail most miserably - in this particular area.

Peter Noerr


> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:web4lib-
> bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Ross Singer
> Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 10:25
> To: Tim Spalding
> Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Does anyone need a federated OPAC search?
> 
> On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 1:15 PM, Tim Spalding <tim at librarything.com> wrote:
> > I'm getting a lot of replies, but they're from big institutions with
> > big needs and, usually, existing systems. It's obvious where the
> > "money" is at, but it's also a solved problem. There are commercial
> > solutions and, as Jeremy Frumkin pointed out to me, there is a
> > high-quality open source solution for institutions with Z39.50
> > targets, LibraryFind from Oregon State (http://libraryfind.org).
> >
> There are scores of libraries (even large libraries -- Atlanta-Fulton
> County Public Library, for example) that either don't have Z39.50
> servers or don't expose them for whatever reason.
> 
> I think the need is there at all levels - even where the "solved
> problem" is supposedly at, it's not.  They just target the "obvious",
> "political" and "easy" targets.
> 
> I feel there's a huge failure of imagination in this space, and the
> "big money" federated search systems (and their general awfulness)
> only exacerbates this by supposedly packaging an answer.
> 
> -Ross.
> 
> 
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