The ASIN Federated Search
We are currently using the MUSE product. Like the Resolver, the MUSE system is installed in the central servers at UNB and maintained by a combination of local and distributed resources.
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- There is a page of of login links for all institutions maintained on the SingleSearch server. For people with administrative access, there is also a Web based admin interface.
- What is the impact of Dalhousie using the Serials Solutions CentralSearch?
- CentralSearch is based on Webfeat. SirsiDynix now supports both products.
- An evaulation of CentralSearch by Slavko Manojlovich in January, 2007 has identified 4 major problems with CentralSearch:
- 1/3 of the connectors(> 100) installed in SingleSearch are NOT available in CentralSearch.
- CentralSearch charges users for the creation of a new connector (the creation of new connectors is part of the SingleSearch maintenance agreement0
- CentralSearch appears to have a problem resolving monographs. For example, monographs retrieved in CentralSearch either from library catalogue
searches do not have OpenURLs to Resolver. SingleSearch supports monograph OpenURLs thereby allowing users to check their local
catalogues for the desired item and/or to place a Relais document delivery request.
- Relais is not integrated into the CentralSearch/Serials Solutions Resolver implementation at Dalhousie.
The ASIN Portal Project uses the Muse Global federated search product, Single Search. It is installed on the asin1 server (asin1.its.unb.ca, port 8000). Having the product available in this fashion allows us to modify any of the features and display options.
We are working with SirsiDynix/MuseGlobal to upgrade SingleSearch in order to support the following new features:
- Clustering/faceting of search results
- Improved Admin interface
- XML gateway to SingleSearch resources
Some features of this product:
- results are generally set to come back to the user "fastest first"
- we can eliminate or add link to full-text, resolver, or the native interface as required for each resource being searched
Some contractual aspects of the MUSE Global component:
- Unlimited connectors where in use by more than one institution.
- The ability to tweak the system.
- For example, we tweak the system to treat dissertations and books in a better way by constructing a better et of metadata.
- Each site has their own list of connectors
- Sites change their suppliers, add and remove items, etc.
- Connector maintenance
- Basic maintenance is done by MUSE
- A Sirsi staff person is our main point of contact with the connectors, whether it be one that is broken or one that needs to be added.
- An ASIN staff person needs to go in to each instance and update the connectors for all institutions.
Staffing Issues
- Someone needs to update the connector list for all institutions.
- Ongoing requirement, with weekly fixes/updates required.
- The time needed to do this is about 2 days per week for all institutions.
- When problems arise it needs to reported, instances need to be disabled so they don't break, communicate with Sirsi, implement the fix when available.
- The broader Sirsi/MUSE community needs to share information so we can all benefit from discoveries.
- The local site installation also allows us to control which of the links from SingleSearch are displayed: More Information; Fulltext; Resolver link.
- For example, fulltext is the only link when the information is available fulltext, as there is no reason to show the other 2.
- The OpenURL engine from MUSE to Openly is also modified to provide better metadata.
- An example would be dissertations, where the data provided by MUSE is more detailed.
- This is done my modifying a set if files that change the data that is returned in the OpenURL string.
- There is an issue to maintaining these files and changes.
- Installation of new sites has a lot of initial setup that is done by ASIN staff.
The biggest problem with the product is keeping the connectors up-to-date. On hosted services, this is looked after centrally.
Libraries in the region have taken different approaches in making Single Search available. Many make the public interface (as modified by the ASIN implementation team) directly available to users. UNB, however, has chosen to integrate federated searching only into their subject guides. Some institutions are sticking with a user login to access searching while others are restricting by IP.
Logins to all the Single Search instances may be found at
the federated search login page. Click on the institution's name to access. IP restricted sites will present you with the proxy server login if you are off-campus and pass you right through if you are on-campus. Other sites require a login in any case.
Here's what the top part of the Cape Breton University Single Search page looks like:
Statistics
Muse Global includes a statistics module that enables us analyze activity on the site.
Below are listed PowerPoint files that contain statistical information on the use of SingleSearch.
Also available, on request, is a spreadsheet of every search by institution and database. If interested, please contact Steve Sloan.
Table of SingleSearch Connectors Installed At Each Site
The following table includes the connectors installed at each site, new requested connectors sent to SirsiDynix and an indicator of whether the resource is freely available to any site. The table is updated daily.
Table of SingleSearch Connectors Installed at ASIN Sites
New Free Connectors Available
Requested Improvements
Here is a short list of enhancements people have requested. The implementation team looked at the
requests to see if we could do them ourselves. After our investigations, we have sent the requests to Muse.
- Add an "Export Marked Records to RefWorks" link to the search results page
- What do we think the timeline might be on this?
- Wrap links in emails of marked records in proxy
NEW FEATURES OF SINGLESEARCH
For http screen-scraping connectors, typically the hitlist citations are parsed into their XML citation elements. In many cases,the hitlist does not include important citation elements (like ISSN, ISBN, subjects) etc. which are useful for OpenURL linkingand/or for export to RefWorks. For designated sources, the connector can be configured to go into the full record to findthese additional data elements. As you might expect, the full record lookup does increase the response time but it may be worth it to get better metadata.
- Extended Parsing Available for Ebsco, CSA, Web of Science (more connectors coming)
We have found a SingleSearch connector for our 1Cate Resolver which provides the capability to do a federated search of Resolver and the
catalogue for journal titles. This will be useful to those sites which either no longer maintain e-journals in the catalogue and/or do not have
print holdings in Resolver. The connector was written for an older version of Resolver. We will ask MuseGlobal to update thie connector to work with the new version of Resolver. Essentially, the SingleSearch will return the journal title, supplier, holdings information and a URL to the Journal TItle home page. We will let you know when this connector is available for general deployment.
We are in the process of planning an upgrade of SingleSearch which supports the clustering of federated search results across multiple sources. You can see a preview of how this could work at:
http://www.musesearch.com
Pick some resources and do a search. The HOT TOPICS in the sidebar are your clusters. I had problems with the user interface in both IE and Firefox. I you the encounter similar problems come back to this site in a couple of days and try again.
Comments (1)
Anonymous said
at 12:17 pm on Mar 6, 2007
The staffing issues section might be improved by an indication of the direction in which information was flowing. It is not clear to me, but I may be out of the loop, whether all the updating begins at Muse Global and flows toward our instance, or whether any significant portion begins at the various sites and moves either to the instance at UNB or Muse Global. Presumably, the works that begins at the local sites, if any, would continue under any scenario. ---Dick Ellis
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