Out-googling Google:
Federated
Searching and the Single Search Box
13th National ACRL Conference
March 29 – April 1, 2007
Presentation by Verne W. Newton
Director of Library Services
Kathryn Silberger
Automation Resources Librarian
James A. Cannavino Library
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY
James A. Cannavino Library
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY
Marist College
30
Bachelor's degrees
10 Master's degrees
16 Certificate Programs
5,000 students on Main Campus
750 adult continuing education
students
 875 full and part-time graduate
students
Marist College
Main Campus and 4 extension sites
 Several Online Degree Programs
 Growing # of Distance Learners

James A. Cannavino Library
190,000
Volumes
91 databases on A – Z List
100’s of recommended web sites
34,000+ electronic journals (21,000+ unique
titles)
9 Full Time Librarians
Web Site Redesign
Single Uncluttered Page
This resulted in 27 Subject Pages
Usage /Data
Why Not A Single Google Style Search Box?
Including Google
Usage Patterns

Fall 2004 to Fall 2005 Changes
– Website visits up 13%
– Database Searches up 29%
– PDF document usage up 63%
– Overall document usage up 350% ***
 *** some inadvertent over-counting by providers
General Usage Trends

Newspaper usage increased the most
 Sort order of most recent first favors news
Alphabetic advantage diminished
 Significant increases in scholarly article
usage

 Jstor, Project Muse, Science Direct increases >
50%
General Usage Trends

Segmented databases – significant
increase in article usage
General Usage Trends

Good informal comments from students
and faculty
General Usage Trends

Databases not compatible with federated
searching saw significant decreases.
Out-googling Google
by searching the “Invisible Web”

Google cannot search content that is
stored in databases and delivered in
dynamic pages.
 Fox
Hunt can.
Creating a Virtual Federated
Database

Fashion Design program
– No commercial resource available
– Several good open access sources available
 American Memory
 NY Public Library Digital Gallery & NYPL Picture
Collection Online
 Artcyclopedia
 Google Images