1. 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
May 2, 2005
IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum
How it looks
Home page:
For a full demo visit
IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum

6. 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

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

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

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

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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum
Thank you!
IUG 2005: Session F3: Metafind Forum