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CDL’s Metasearch Infrastructure
ICOLC, Boston
April 13, 2005Laine Farley, Director
Digital Library Services
The “Holy Grail”of Resource Discovery
• One-stop shopping
• Simplify a complex task
• User focuses on results, not on where to search
Metasearching at CDL: A Brief History
• 1997: UC San Diego creates Database Advisor
• 1999: CDL creates metasearch tool based on DBA
• 2000: SearchLight launched• 2002-3: CDL looks beyond SL • 2002-3: Commercial products arrive• 2003: CDL Metasearch Infrastructure project
Metasearching at CDL: A Brief History
• 2004: RFP “bakeoff” – consortial model
• 2004: Metalib installed, v. 3
• 2005: Reality sets in…
Lessons Learned from SearchLight
• Metasearching is worth doing (many users want it)
• For a large research library, focus on specific audience, subject, task, format
• Service should be placed as close to the user as possible
Lessons Learned from SearchLight
• Size of result set isn’t as important as how the results are displayed (e.g., relevance)
• All things being equal, one place to search is better than two or more
• “Good enough” is often just that• Only librarians like to search, everyone
else wants to find
Prototypes
• Two campus partners– “Smart Start” – undergrads (UCSC, UCLA)– “European Studies” – faculty (UCLA)
• Two grant projects– National Science Digital Library –
Geology?– Hewlett Foundation - American West
“Vanilla” Interface
Usability testing / Focus Groups
• Upper division undergrads – UCB– Google: use to get started but not for “real”– Already know “their” database(s) –more
options for limiting– Some still wanted metasearch -
multidisciplinary
Lower division undergrads – UC Santa Cruz
• “A Google search will probably give me celebrity gossip” but…useful for terms, narrowing topic
• “If you can’t trust the library to give you good information, who can you trust? “
• “I don’t know what all these databases are”
• Various usability problems
Custom Interface
• UCLA – European Studies – Help develop processes, workflow
– Develop templates for other campuses
– Research oriented
– Not all resources can be searched
Custom Interface - 2
• National Science Digital Library
– Test integration of NSDL content with academic library resources
– Proof of concept – may not become production service
Custom Interface – 3
• American West
– OAI harvested metadata - primary
– Licensed databases for UC users - secondary
Developments to Date
• Ex Libris– X-server enhancements
• NISO Metasearch– SRU/SRW “light”
Development
• CDL: – Harvesting tools– ATE: Analyze, Transform, Enrich– UI and Common Framework
• UCLA: – Analyzing targets– Testing groupings
Timeline
• Fall 2005?– NSDL– UCLA European Integration– Smart Start
• Spring 2005– American West
Future Possibilities
• Medical texts (e.g., MDConsult equivalent)
• Images
• East Asian
What keeps me awake at night
• Walmart (Target?) vs boutique– Just in case vs just in time– Commodity vs crafted
• Search vs services– Users want to find, but also use
What keeps me awake at night
• If you can’t trust the library…– What is the value of selection, curation,
expertise
