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Federated searching aggragates multiple channels of information into a single searchable point.
Does information in your organization reside in silos? Do you have to remember multiple database search protocols and passwords? Do you send students to the OPAC terminal to find books in your collection but to another computer to look for periodical articles? Perhaps there's a third for Internet access? Are end users in your company confused about the difference between one information source and another? Do results from a Web search and a fee-based premium information source look totally different? When researching a subject, can you imagine being able to do a single search, including subscription databases, Internet search engines, and electronic publications, instead of doing multiple searches across different sources and deleting duplicates?
This technology is here, albeit in its infancy. Federated searching-also known as parallel search, metasearch, or broadcast search-can be seen as an extension of the common user-interface research done decades ago. Federated searching aggregates multiple channels of information into a single searchable point. This blends e-journals, subscription databases, electronic print collections, other digital repositories, and the Internet. Federated searching reduces the time it takes to search and usually displays results in a common format.
NAMING NAMES IN FEDERATED SEARCH
The biggest players in the federated searching industry are MuseGlobal (MuseSearch), Fretwell-Downing (Zportal), and Webfeat (Knowledge Prism). These product offerings allow a user, regardless of vendor, to access multiple databases through one search interface. Endeavor (ENCompass) and ExLibris (MetaLib) are also in the federated searching space, as is Sirsi, with its Rooms project, but each offers slightly different features, including a combination of full-text linking and federated search results. Anew entrant is TDNet, with its TES product. There are probably just a few thousand companies and libraries using this technology. Since federated searching is a young, emerging technology, the vendors are continually adding features and updating their capabilities.
Partnerships formed by companies already in the library/information space with federated search engine technology are common. MuseGlobal's MuseSearch sells exclusively through existing channels. Some of its vendor partners are COMPanion, Endeavor, Innovative Interfaces, Kreutzfeldt Information Services, LIB-IT GmbH, Mandarin Library Automation, My Community International, Syndetic Solutions, Sirsi, and Transtech Corporation. Webfeat's product, Knowledge Prism, has vendor partnerships with Dynix, Follett Software...