PALNI OPAC On INSPIRE

Submitted by admin on Sat, 06/03/2006 - 11:51am.

PALNI OPAC Searchable on INSPIRE

For those who may not have already discovered it, the PALNI Online Union Catalog can now be searched, along with the various INSPIRE databases, through a new web portal to INSPIRE. The new INSPIRE database portal was developed using software from WebFeat, Inc., and is currently being tested on the INSPIRE web site. Click on the "Try the New INSPIREsearch" link near the top of the page.

Using the new INSPIRE web interface, users can search the PALNI Online Catalog, various other library catalogs, and any of the INSPIRE databases. The new INSPIRE portal's broadcast search capability allows the user either to search an individual database, or to run their search in parallel across many databases all at the same time.

For example, using the new INSPIRE search interface, you may search the PALNI OPAC, OCLC WorldCat, and the Indiana Shared Library Catalog (ISLC) system, all at the same time and in parallel. Similarly, the user can do a keyword search against the PALNI Union Catalog, GoogleScholar, and Ebsco's Academic Search Elite, also all in parallel.

Note that the new new search interface is still in testing, but basic keyword searching seems to be functional now. Your comments and feedback are welcome. As usual with INSPIRE, access to the new portal is restricted to Indiana residents only.

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( categories: Aleph News and Information | OPAC | PALNI Directors News and Information | PALNI Library Staff News and Information )
I've discovered that you
Submitted by vince on Sat, 06/03/2006 - 12:53pm.

I've discovered that you can use the parallel search capability of the new INSPIRE search interface to get a comparison of the search performance of the PALNI system versus the various other databases offered through INSPIRE.

For example, by selecting the "Library Catalogs" box at the top of the web page, you can run a keyword search in parallel against PALNI, WorldCat, and the "Indiana Shared Library Catalog (ISLC)"--presumably, other library catalogs will be added as well over time. When you do so, you find that Worldcat is faster to return search results about 50% of the time, while the PALNI Union Catalog is faster about 50% of the time. Generally, the difference in response time between the two is small. Both are consistently faster than than the ISLC's Sirsi-based online catalog, usually by a large margin.

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