Re: google onebox, "next generation" library catalogs, and interpreting queries

From: Eric Lease Morgan <emorgan_at_nyob>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 08:32:51 -0400
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
On May 2, 2008, at 4:06 PM, Eric Lease Morgan wrote:

> I have been thinking about Google Onebox technology, "next
> generation" library catalogs, and interpreting user queries.
> Specifically, I think the techniques behind Google Onebox
> technology could easily be implemented in "next generation" library
> catalogs.


To illustrate some of the possibilities of Google Onebox technology
and how a library catalog search can be integrated into "search this
site" functionality, I created the following demonstration. Try
searching for Walt Whitman at the following URL:

   http://dewey.library.nd.edu/box/

Remember, it is just an example -- a prototype!

Here at Notre Dame the library manages the campus-wide search engine
-- a Google Search Appliance. For the most part, it works pretty
well. The Appliance allows us to create sub-collections, and in our
case we created a sub-collection of simply library- and archive-
related materials. It is then possible to insert sub-queries (called
Onebox in Google parlance) into the Appliance interface such as
queries against a campus-wide directory. Enter a query. The query
gets sent to the sub-queries. The query gets sent to Google
Appliance. Results are returned. Display. The whole thing sort of
works like meta-search, sort of. Try these searches as well:

   * jennifer younger
   * plato and aristotle
   * encyclopedia of philosophy

In a world were the name of the game is "Put your content where the
users are", integrating the searching of library content in "search
this site" functionality makes a lot of sense.

--
Eric Lease Morgan
Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame
Received on Tue May 20 2008 - 07:15:50 EDT