Comments on: Is federated search as bad as librarians think? http://federatedsearchblog.com/2008/02/16/is-federated-search-as-bad-as-librarians-think/ Covers topics in the federated search field. Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:27:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Sol http://federatedsearchblog.com/2008/02/16/is-federated-search-as-bad-as-librarians-think/#comment-515 Sol Tue, 26 Feb 2008 21:19:40 +0000 http://federatedsearchblog.com/2008/02/16/is-federated-search-as-bad-as-librarians-think/#comment-515 Niner, Thanks for the comment. Isn't there a saying that goes something like "Librarians like to search, users like to find." Niner,

Thanks for the comment. Isn’t there a saying that goes something like “Librarians like to search, users like to find.”

]]> By: niner http://federatedsearchblog.com/2008/02/16/is-federated-search-as-bad-as-librarians-think/#comment-505 niner Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:02:07 +0000 http://federatedsearchblog.com/2008/02/16/is-federated-search-as-bad-as-librarians-think/#comment-505 Reference and instruction staff dislike federated search in part because their expectations of it are built on their expectations of the products it's meant to work with. Date and peer reviewed filters don't work in FS tools, and these features are built into reference and instruction routines. Controlled vocabularies and carefully constructed indexes are bypassed. Other things that are hard to swallow: some vendors (**cough lexisnexis cough**) don't allow all of their resources to be federated right now. Resources with concurrent user restrictions--which, unfortunately, includes a lot of personal favorites for ref/inst folks--get left out. Finally, using it yourself as a professional librarian feels like putting the training wheels back on the bike. I am a huge FS advocate, yet when I'm helping a student find something, I instinctively go to our home-grown databases A-Z list. But, that's because I'm a librarian. :) Our patrons aren't, and they shouldn't need to know what I know to find an article or two about a topic. Finally, how many databases did your library have in 1998? How many will it have in 2018? How will you display these in a way that makes sense to your users, who hate looking at lists of lists? :) Reference and instruction staff dislike federated search in part because their expectations of it are built on their expectations of the products it’s meant to work with. Date and peer reviewed filters don’t work in FS tools, and these features are built into reference and instruction routines. Controlled vocabularies and carefully constructed indexes are bypassed. Other things that are hard to swallow: some vendors (**cough lexisnexis cough**) don’t allow all of their resources to be federated right now. Resources with concurrent user restrictions–which, unfortunately, includes a lot of personal favorites for ref/inst folks–get left out. Finally, using it yourself as a professional librarian feels like putting the training wheels back on the bike. I am a huge FS advocate, yet when I’m helping a student find something, I instinctively go to our home-grown databases A-Z list. But, that’s because I’m a librarian. :) Our patrons aren’t, and they shouldn’t need to know what I know to find an article or two about a topic. Finally, how many databases did your library have in 1998? How many will it have in 2018? How will you display these in a way that makes sense to your users, who hate looking at lists of lists?
:)

]]> By: Sol http://federatedsearchblog.com/2008/02/16/is-federated-search-as-bad-as-librarians-think/#comment-363 Sol Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:03:39 +0000 http://federatedsearchblog.com/2008/02/16/is-federated-search-as-bad-as-librarians-think/#comment-363 Brinxmat, I'm glad this blog has inspired you to look more closely at the value of federated search at your academic library. Brinxmat,

I’m glad this blog has inspired you to look more closely at the value of federated search at your academic library.

]]> By: Brinxmat http://federatedsearchblog.com/2008/02/16/is-federated-search-as-bad-as-librarians-think/#comment-354 Brinxmat Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:44:41 +0000 http://federatedsearchblog.com/2008/02/16/is-federated-search-as-bad-as-librarians-think/#comment-354 After watching this blog, I've been investigating use of FS at our (academic) library: very little take-up among users, and very poor opinions/understanding of the technology among library staff. I reckon that we're doing ourselves a real disservice by ignoring what is potentially a worthwhile tool for quite a few users. Admittedly, the tech needs to get better, but so does the training we give our users (which is currently none). This blog has inspired to offer this training in my courses in future. Thanks! After watching this blog, I’ve been investigating use of FS at our (academic) library: very little take-up among users, and very poor opinions/understanding of the technology among library staff.

I reckon that we’re doing ourselves a real disservice by ignoring what is potentially a worthwhile tool for quite a few users.

Admittedly, the tech needs to get better, but so does the training we give our users (which is currently none). This blog has inspired to offer this training in my courses in future. Thanks!

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