Old Brookville, N.Y., September 29, 2003 - When Vancouver Public Library issued an RFP for an Integrated Library System two years ago, it included federated search as a requirement. "We were looking for federated search to be part of our online catalog," states Janet Horne, Systems Librarian at Vancouver Public Library. "Our goal was to facilitate searching across both bibliographic data as well as the other electronic resources the library has subscribed to." Dynix was eventually chosen to implement the new Integrated Library System, and through its partnership with Dynix, WebFeat provided the federated search solution.
Vancouver Public Library, the second largest public library system in Canada, had an issue with the growing number of database resources. It was becoming more complicated for its 395,000 cardholders to obtain an adequate view into the many databases to which the library subscribes. "We became aware of what other libraries were doing," continues Horne. "There was a big buzz surrounding federated search." This buzz translated into a set of requirements in the RFP. Horne had seen a demonstration of a federated searching system at King County Public Library and knew that it was a reasonable solution, and that other libraries were successfully using it.
WebFeat began working with Horne in the spring of 2003 on the implementation of the library's federated search system. The system has been live since late August and allows patrons to search the librarys catalog as well as 20 of its databases, with plans to add more. "Our federated search implementation reflects what is most useful to our patrons, which is getting full text results back from a search," comments Horne. "People want information, rather than links to information, so we include full-text databases in our federated search system." Horne feels that her experience implementing federated searching can benefit others who plan to do the same. "User authentication is something that requires planning and making choices. We wanted as few barriers in front of patrons as possible. Libraries should think through what authentication model best serves their purpose when implementing federated searching." Horne also issues this caveat emptor message: "test, test and test again. Federated search is an emerging technology. The vendors and the libraries that use federated search are learning more about it everyday."
Vancouver Public Library patrons will benefit from being able to search in just one place. "I was doing a specialized search and didnt know which database the information I wanted would be in. I used our WebFeat system and found what I needed. I think federated search will be most satisfactory for this type of searching. I'm glad we are where we are with federated searching," concludes Horne.
About WebFeat
WebFeat is the developer of the remarkable, patent-pending WebFeat Prism, used by over 1,000 leading public, academic, and corporate libraries, including more than half of the top 20 U.S. public libraries. Other products include the WebFeat Usage Tracker (WUT) and the WebFeat Authentication Manager (WAM). Originally founded in 1992 as an information technology consultancy, WebFeat has earned industry recognition from leading organizations such as Gartner and Library Journal. Learn more about WebFeat at www.webfeat.org.