Federated Searching: A New Era

“Only librarians like to search; everyone else likes to find” (Tennant, 2003). While most librarians teach research strategies including: Boolean logic, accessing carefully chosen databases, and indexing; students are often discouraged and frustrated using these techniques. Most students simply want to Google their requests. For many students a simple keyword search is a convenient, simple process for locating information. Federated searching is providing options that may strike a happy medium for students and librarians alike by providing a keyword option to access the library’s databases. Federated searching is software or a service that allows multiple sources to be searched simultaneously. A library is required to purchase software and/or a service agreement from a vendor that provides access to information in the databases and on the Web. Using a search protocol, like Z39.50, the engine scans various databases, the Web, and library catalogs concurrently and provides an organized result for the searcher’s query. Metasearches are performed across both bibliographic and full-text databases. One major advantage of a federated search is that the query does not have to be repeated with various databases. When federated searching works well, it reduces the amount of time students spend locating data and encourages them to search for more information. “The goal of many federated search tools is to make the interface as simple and streamlined as possible, but the model that federated search products use is quite different from Google” (Frost, 2004). In many applications students must decide on a subject area to search and are often required to identify the databases to explore. The technology is still in its infancy, but libraries now have the opportunity to provide an interface that uses Google technology. “The concept of a