Queer Buy for the Straight Li-brary (Endeavor's ENCompass)

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This keynote address to the Great Lakes Users Group Meeting in 2003 discusses how ENCompass, a federated search product from Endeavor Information Systems, might have a hard time fitting into librarians' notions of how library systems ought to work.

Transcript of Queer Buy for the Straight Li-brary (Endeavor's ENCompass)

Queer Buy for the Straight Li-brary

Great Lakes Users Group MeetingChicago, Illinois

20-21 October 2003

Alan ManifoldSystems Implementation

ManagerPurdue University Librariesmanifold@purdue.edu

SESSION OVERVIEW

Focus will be on ENCompass forResource Access

Pseudo-demo:Web InterfaceSysAdmin ClientENCompass Client

What’s Queer?

PSEUDO-DEMOI’ll be showing Purdue’s customized version of ERA. We have made extensive changes, but we have retained the main concepts.

MAIN STRUCTUREOur databases are in two sets:

MegaSearch DBsSimultaneous search DBs

Four connector types:VoyagerZ39.50HTTPXML Gateways

All DatabasesEvery database for which we have a license

No SimulSearchingCan connect directly

MEGASEARCH BY TITLE

DOING A MEGASEARCH

RESULTS SUMMARY

RESULTS DISPLAY

FULL RECORD DISPLAY

SEARCH DATABASE DIRECTLY

MEGASEARCH BY SUBJECT

SUBJECT EXPANDED

QUICK SEARCH

LOGIN

SAVED SEARCHES

RENAME & ALERTS

SAVED RECORDS (& PRINT)

E-MAIL RECORDS

ALL DATABASES BY TITLE

CONNECT TO RESOURCE

FULL DATABASE RECORD

ALL DATABASES BY SUBJECT

SUBJECT EXPANDED

CONNECT TO RESOURCE

SYSADMIN CLIENT

Z39.50 (LMS) CONNECTOR

HTTP CONNECTOR

METADATA DEFINITION

RELATIONSHIP MANAGER

COLLECTIONS vs. CONNECTIONS

WHAT’S QUEER?

Variety/Range/MixFlakiness/UnpredictabilityLack of (or too many) standardsOut of library control

VARIETY/RANGE/MIXConnectors:VoyagerZ39.50HTTPXML

Resources:Article IndexesElectronic JournalsWeb search enginesStatistical databasesFull text repositoriesLibrary catalogsDictionariesEncyclopedias

Results:Dictionary entriesArticle referencesFull articlesLinks to websitesBooksImagesJournal titles

Mappings:XMLXMLMARCXMLHTMLXMLVariations within these

FLAKINESS / UNPREDICTABILITY

Flakiness of connectors, particularly HSEsChanging nature of contents

LACK OF (OR TOO MANY) STANDARDS

XML-based, not MARCInterfiling in “Show All”Lack of cataloging standardsMapping of different DBs

OUT OF LIBRARY CONTROL

Used from outside library – no instruction/interventionSending people off outside library pages