Steve -

Maybe you could give us a paragraph about metasearching. What does the “meta” refer to? Is it correct that metasearching and federated searching are synonymous? While I’m used to the term “federated searching,” I’ve not used “metasearching” as a term.

And congratulations on the successful session! Once I have a chance to look over the blog summaries, I’ll give you my thoughts.

Best,
David

I think the ‘meta’ is a reference to the search of a search in the way metadata is a reference to the data about data.

Definition: “Searching across several search engines simultaneously.”

Controversy: “Fans of federated searching point to their timesaving metasearch capabilities, while critics warn that dumbing down the search interfaces can sacrifice quality.”

(Other definitions.)

Steve -

Looking over the reviews from the blog, and the documentation at the NCSU website, I’m struck by the very different thoughts you and I think during a day. Today I taught two sections of Greek Thought and Literature and described how papyrus is made. What you do is very far from papyrus, Stephen. (Although I did compare one fragment to an Excel spreadsheet, for whatever that’s worth.)

Your project points out just how much libraries and librarians are still hussling to catch up with the explosion in digital data and online resources. At the same time, I notice that NCSU is pursuing this project (and not waiting for the corporate vendors) because the NCSU plan incorporates print serials information, which vendors apparently do not. I see the value in simultaneously managing the data for print serials and the data for electronic resources, and I think the E-Matrix is right to proceed in that direction.

Also, librarians need to begin to think outside of their cubicle, as NCSU says, to make “an effort coordinated throughout the Libraries and across departments.” This holisitic thinking is, I think, crucial here.

Keep us updated as E-Matrix proceeds!

As for federated searching, my experience is that searches with tools like MetaLib are always simple searches (even the “Advanced Search” only allows for title, keyword, and controlled subject searching). This tends to remove a lot of the flexibility we’re used to with our OPACs, where we can search for dates, publishers, places, etc. So yes, sometimes the searching is wonky. This, too, shall pass. Right?

Dave, I am very glad that, without coming to the presentation or hearing about the project elsewhere, the ‘print, too’ point came across. The decision to include print serials within the scope of E-Matrix predates my arrival, but it is one of the more important and valuable aspects of the project. The idea here is that we should be managing a journal work, a piece of intellectual content, not just a journal format…