1. Lesson 4 The Debate Pros and Cons of Federated Searching

2. What’s not to love? One-stop searching No danger of missing a possible source of information Users do not have to figure out where to start…just search them all Those expensive databases won’t be missed by searchers who could use them

3. What’s not to love? The whole process of research— even for scholarly, technical, and professional information—has been Googlized!

4. There’s a catch, right? While the search may be quick and broad, it is neither precise nor deep

5. Not for Power Searching The searching syntax among databases vary Truncation, Boolean searching, phrase searching, proximity searching, and limiting may be Use of limits is limited Searchable fields may be eliminated— controlled vocabularies lose their punch Even keyword searching tough. MS = Microsoft or multiple sclerosis All other special features in the different databases are unusable

6. Federated Searching Software Still Has Much to Improve Access and verification—especially “off- site” users, can be tricky or impossible

7. Federated Searching Software Still Has Much to Improve Not all federated search engines can search all sources Not everyone is using the Z39.50 or XML protocol

8. Even included features may not be all they claim True de-duping is virtually impossible

9. Even included features may not be all they claim Too many variables for reliable relevancy ranking

10. Even included features may not be all they claim Sorting—a single basket for apples and oranges?

11. Help is on the way? NISO has gathered vendors, content providers, and library systems to set standards for federated search engines Metasearch Initiative

12. Metasearch Initiative Goals Vendors to offer better service Content providers to deliver more and better content…and to protect their content Libraries to deliver quality services that distinguish them from Google and other free web services.