JILL KONIECZKO Director of Library Services and Data Research at U.S.News & World Report At U.S.News, our end-users have access to over 70 databases, from LexisNexis and ProQuest to the Community of Science and the whole suite of Yellow Book directories. End-user access provides them with authoritative content from reliable sources, but it can be daunting, and time consuming for end-users to search in and around 70 databases, especially since each requires a different syntax and offers different interfaces; consequently, we don't always see the usage we need to ensure appropriate return on our (significant) investments. Employing a federated search helps us to achieve both objectives -- our end-users are able to easily navigate through multiple services using a common search syntax and interface, and we see greater ROI, having spent significant money on a variety of otherwise under-used databases.

Federated Search U.S.News & World Report

To librarians, access to over 70 databases is like being a kid in a candy store – to an end-user, it’s TMI!

Why employ a federated search? Research shows that searching authoritative, but fee-ba$ed, services, such as LexisNexis and EBSCO, yield better information than searching the free Web. –Already grappling with an infoglut, our end-users don’t typically employ more sophisticated search syntax, resulting in poor search hits Database subscriptions account for 75% of the Library’s (shrinking) budget. –We need to demonstrate quantitative and qualitative ROI so as to provide rationale for subscription renewals.

Accessible via the Library’s Intranet, the federated search – which crawls Web-accessible content, 3rd party licensed content, and our own content – helps end- users to more quickly gain access to better information … saving them time and increasing their efficiencies, and helps us to justify the expense of subscription- based services