Re: discovery systems need to do more

For what it's worth, our experiences with Primo and sitemaps have not
been successful. This seems to be because though the sitemap itself is
valid, Primo requires each request of a page to pass through the Patron
Directory System (PDS), then redirect to the page. We believe Google
sees these redirects as trying to game the system, and thus has not
indexed any of our pages.

We have raised this as a support request with Ex Libris, but it has not
yet been addressed.

Mike



__________________________
Mike Kmiec
Manager, Service Development and Support
National Library of New Zealand
Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa
mike.kmiec_at_natlib.govt.nz 
o: +64 (0)4 474 3137
m: +64 (0)21 784 774


>>> Gilad Gal <Gilad.Gal_at_EXLIBRISGROUP.COM> 2/09/2010 9:27 p.m. >>>
Shirley,

I think what you mean is to enable users to search for your library's
material through Google. We do this with Primo.

Search engines (like Primo) create a normalized format of all the
local
material, which is very beneficial for discovery, because you prepare
exactly the information you want to expose (we have a whole publishing
platform intended for this). On the other hand, search engines create
the pages (SERPs) dynamically upon request, which makes it impossible
for crawlers (like Google's crawlers) to index the material. 

The solution is a standard named 'Sitemap' (sometimes refered to as
'Google Sitemap', but all major search engines use it), which provides
the crawler with the list of relevant URLs. Primo supports this
standard
and allows libraries to publish their material to web search engines.

The result is that when using Primo you can expose your library's
material to end users through web search engines. In that way, a user
can search in Google for a book title, include the library's name in
the
search string, and get the item in the library as a result. It is also
useful for exposing unique collections the library may have that do
not
exist elsewhere on the web and for that reason will appear high on
Google's result list.

Best regards,
Gilad

-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Shirley Lincicum
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 10:48 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU 
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] discovery systems need to do more

Andrew,

My library doesn't have Summon yet, but I have attended some webinars
and
searched Summon instances at other libraries. In my mind, one big
feature
that Summon seems to lack is the ability to expose the contents of an
individual library's index to mainstream search engines, such as
Google.
The
Google Scholar Library Links approach, where users can encounter links
to
resources available through their library as part of their "regular"
search
results, seems like a real winner to me, but at this point, I don't
think
that Summon helps a library to do that. Am I wrong? Lately, I've been
contemplating what it might be like if we could build a Summon-like
index
and then slap a Google Custom Search on it. That feels like it would
be
a
big step in the right direction.

Shirley

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:03 PM, Andrew Nagy <asnagy_at_gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Eric - As I read your email, I can only think about how Summon
has
> answered all of these questions and has brought true resource
discovery to
> fruition.  Since you raise these questions, you must think that
Summon
is
> missing something.  What is Summon missing that is not allowing it
to
> resolve these struggles?
>
> Andrew
>