I've noticed that reference and instructional librarians (at least in published literature) tend to use the term "federated search" more often than others. And by that they mean a broadcast search, not what Ray and many others mean by that term.
Library technology folk tend to use the other terms more often.
--Dave
==================
David Walker
Library Web Services Manager
California State University
http://xerxes.calstate.edu
________________________________________
From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Ray Denenberg, Library of Congress [rden_at_LOC.GOV]
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 8:28 AM
To: CODE4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Serials Solutions Summon
From: "Thomas Dowling" <tdowling_at_OHIOLINK.EDU>
> You can define differences between meta-, federated, and broadcast search,
> but
> every discussion on the topic will be punctuated by people asking, "Wait,
> what's the difference again?"
Leaving aside metasearch and broadcast search (terms invented more recently)
it is a shame if "federated" has really lost its distinction
from"distributed". Historically, a federated database is one that
integrates multiple (autonomous) databases so it is in effect a virtual
distributed database, though a single database. I don't think that's a
hard concept and I don't think it is a trivial distinction.
--Ray
Received on Tue Apr 21 2009 - 11:40:32 EDT