Federated Searching, the ‘Deep Web’, and Novice Preferences

I got a look at InfoVell today, and it is an interesting service. It provides single-point access to a selection of free US sources of health science, patent and other specialist information, AKA part of the ‘deep web’. Slawyers might use it for researching Health Law. The fact that a person can search there once for information that might take a number of searches otherwise is what is known in library circles as ‘federated searching.’ It embeds detailed knowledge of sources and search methods (what librarians know) into an easy to use format. Of course, it also hides from the user the choices that the designers have made along the way, such as what sources to exclude, and any fudges in search methods that were necessary to bring everything under one tent.

It is a real trend in academic libraries to implement some kind of federated search to simplify searching for journal articles. This report in College and Research Libraries

• Belliston, C. Jeffrey, Jared L. Howland, & Brian C. Roberts. “Undergraduate Use of Federated Searching: A Survey of Preferences and Perceptions of Value-Added Functionality.” College & Research Libraries 68.6 (Nov. 2007): 472-86. (reviewed here)

notes the positive reaction that undergraduates have had to such services, though interestingly it also notes that no significant amount of time was saved by the students. I suppose ease-of-use is the key to their appreciation.

The essentials of such services are provided by the traditional Library Guide, which is sometimes extensive and oriented to specific courses. They can also be found, to some extent, in the links lists of specialist blogs, such as Life Science Law in Canada. The added benefit of a good (nay, excellent) guide is that it offers key contextual and evaluative content as well, which is the real time and trouble saver.