IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum IUG 2005: Session F3 – Metafind Forum Metasearching & Tec de Monterrey’s Digital Library Alejandro Garza Digital Library R&D alejandro.garza@itesm.mx May 2, 2005 IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum In brief: We redesigned our Digital Library from scratch, and are now using Metafind …sort of. IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum Background About Tecnológico de Monterrey Private, 80k+ students, 30+ different cities Library System: 2M volumes, running Millennium since 2003. Our Digital Library in 2003 Over 40 fulltext databases Users complained about complexity, not finding information, are “Googled.mx” Did some research, looked at Metafind We decided we wanted… One DL page for 30+ libraries Show users “their” local databases Catalog to list “everything” (paper & electronic) Know what users were doing Be “easier” (single sign-on, faster, less terminology, common language/icons/placement) IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum Timeframe 2003/2004: prototype, DL v3.0 User-centered design, 4 testing iterations Combined in-house & Metafind “engines” Serials Solutions + in-house cataloguing WebBridge testing Aug-Dec 2004: Beta testing 1,000 metaqueries daily, 45% returning some results positive opinions Jan 2004: v.3.0 Release 6,000 metaqueries daily Some trouble at first: 2 weeks of Intermittent server problems/crashes Solved within 2 weeks: new software, hardware… IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum How it looks Home page: http://biblioteca.itesm.mx/ For a full demo visit http://biblioteca.itesm.mx/demo IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

MetaBusca progress page Hidden IFRAME calls metasearch module, which updates status in real-time via Javascript. Unlike Metafind, search waits for all sources to finish (stoppable) MetaBusca progress page IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum MetaBusca results Tabbed results, collapsible “history” panel. IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

MetaBusca: advanced search Patron record’s HOMELIB field determines which databases are offered. IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

MetaBusca: search tips Searches are suggested when a query fails to produce results. IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum Alerts service Saved searches are run weekly in user-selected databases. IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum How it works Millennium server Main user database for DL, WebOpac, WAM, Webbridge Solaris server SunOne Webserver + PHP + Zend Enabler + MySQL Cache of user data metafind2.iii.com Queried by software, not directly by users HTML results page is parsed for metadata Lots of glue Expect, Google, Cookies, Javascripts in WebOpac Lots of automation access logging, error logging monitoring of WAM/WebOpac response times & server load IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum What’s going on Normal hours: ~200 simultaneous users 25% WebOpac, 25% MetaBusca 50% doing “other stuff” inside DL (renewals, using a single database…) Metasearching stats for March 2005: 2,312 daily MetaBusca sessions 3.06 metaqueries per session # of DBs selected in “advanced” search: 9 avg; 28% queried one DB; 80% queried 1-13 DBs; however 9.7% query all 53. Time: 19 seconds avg.; 35% under 5 seconds; 80% under 37 seconds. 1.99 result pages viewed per query 0.98 results viewed per query IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum What’s next On the drawing board… Better (?) relevance ranking “Best bets” results from WebOpac, etc. available while MetaBusca is working “Easier” DB selector Quick filtering of search results Do more research Do something about “Googled” patrons doing a lot of searching in spanish (content is mostly in english) How to recommend users other relevant DBs they did not search What are you doing? And--about Metafind… Ask for faster profiling of DBs What is the development roadmap? Request improvements Think about local installation of MF IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum In closing… Redesigned for use; had to involve users Quite a few issues: human, tech, and human-tech MetaBusca is “star” Still a lot to do! And a thought… Users do not have the same information-seeking abilities we do; how do make this fact our responsibility and help them? IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum Thank you! alejandro.garza@itesm.mx http://biblioteca.itesm.mx/ http://biblioteca.itesm.mx/demo/ IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum