[Sigia-l] integrated catalogues?

[A.F. Cossham]

Consider trying to develop federated searching across a range of databases
which include a library catalogue, subscription databases from two or more
providers, in-house created databases including some full-text, and course
resource pages.

This is what many universities are aiming to do (and I'm sure there are
other categories of info I've overlooked) - and technically it is tricky,
with timeframes for searching still stretching in the minutes not the
seconds (last I heard from a colleague working in the university I'm
thinking of). 
For students, a search result which takes minutes to provide is laughable,
when they see that what google does, it does in micro-seconds.

it isn't "simply" a case of providing an appropriate interface for the
different users - specialist vs everyone isn't an issue -  it's a case of
providing efficient searching over a range of sites. The fact that each is a
different database is indeed an excuse for it not working particularly well.

(and no, i'm not au fait with the technical details)

Regards,
Amanda Cossham