Comments on: Reports from CiL 2008 conference? http://federatedsearchblog.com/2008/04/07/reports-from-cil-2008-conference/ Covers topics related to federated search and the deep web Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:23:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Alisa Whitt http://federatedsearchblog.com/2008/04/07/reports-from-cil-2008-conference/#comment-1252 Alisa Whitt Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:34:24 +0000 http://federatedsearchblog.com/2008/04/07/reports-from-cil-2008-conference/#comment-1252 Concerning the CRL article from November ’07, I think the reason librarians rate federated search results lower than faculty isn’t because faculty are the experts at finding what they want and need, but because librarians have a broader view. With all due respect to my faculty friends, faculty aren’t so different from students in this regard. Sure, federated search returns results that are relevant, eventually, but librarians know that while Academic Search Premier might give relevant articles on art history, it’s not the best source. Which isn’t an argument against federated search. If anything it’s an argument for continuing to refine the speed and sorting of FS so that results can come back reflecting relevancy, with bells and whistles like limiting results to peer review, full text, and the presence of images. Federated search is for now a contest of speed. As the technology develops, one hopes speed will become a given, and we can turn to the matter of sorting. So the question of whom we’re trying to satisfy, faculty/students or librarians, is a bit like saying that if I go to my doctor and ask for this new medication I saw advertised in a commercial during 60 Minutes, my doc should just give me a scrip and not use her very expensive education to interview me and give me something that might do the job just as well, or even better, but without the television advertising. Librarians’ expertise is undervalued by this kind of thinking. Alisa Whitt PASCAL http://pascalsc.org/ Concerning the CRL article from November ’07, I think the reason librarians rate federated search results lower than faculty isn’t because faculty are the experts at finding what they want and need, but because librarians have a broader view. With all due respect to my faculty friends, faculty aren’t so different from students in this regard. Sure, federated search returns results that are relevant, eventually, but librarians know that while Academic Search Premier might give relevant articles on art history, it’s not the best source.

Which isn’t an argument against federated search. If anything it’s an argument for continuing to refine the speed and sorting of FS so that results can come back reflecting relevancy, with bells and whistles like limiting results to peer review, full text, and the presence of images.

Federated search is for now a contest of speed. As the technology develops, one hopes speed will become a given, and we can turn to the matter of sorting.

So the question of whom we’re trying to satisfy, faculty/students or librarians, is a bit like saying that if I go to my doctor and ask for this new medication I saw advertised in a commercial during 60 Minutes, my doc should just give me a scrip and not use her very expensive education to interview me and give me something that might do the job just as well, or even better, but without the television advertising. Librarians’ expertise is undervalued by this kind of thinking.

Alisa Whitt
PASCAL
http://pascalsc.org/

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