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It’s Probably Right in Front of You
Head of Systems, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh. Column for May 2005 I remember a comedian who used to say that after looking all over for something and finally finding it, he would look in one more place just so he could say that the thing he sought was not always in the last place he looked. With all the buzz about federated searching, improving online catalogs, and the hundreds of silos of information out there, it’s harder and harder to even find that one more place to look. Moreover, it’s easy to forget that what we’re looking for is often right in front of us. Sometimes it seems like the dumbest computer I encounter in my daily endeavors is the one that sits on my desk or on my lap. It does not know when I am there, it rarely knows what I want to do, and it almost never finds what file I’m looking for unless I have arranged my files on the machine with the careful anal retentiveness that only a librarian or archivist can add to computer file organization. Even the visitor center rest room on I-95 knows enough to turn on the lights when I walk in, and flush the toilet when I walk away. Why is my computer so unhelpful? Why can’t I find the stuff that I know I’ve seen before on my very own screen? Well, it only took about 20 years of personal computer use and 10 years of powerful search engines to finally combine the two. Google has made another splash with its new Desktop Search, but despite the splash, Google is jumping into a crowded pool. Desktop search tools—which often extend “desktop” to mean all locally networked files as well—work by indexing the files that you keep; first in a batch mode, then as files are added or changed on your system. The searching is fast, and the more intensive CPU time that is needed to conduct the indexing usually occurs when your computer is idle. It is just one of many products on the market. Google Desktop SearchWith a familiar interface (would it be safe to say that 99.9% of web users have seen Google by now?) and a free download, Google’s search is bound to be popular; but it is far from best in breed, even in the market of free search tools. By integrating its already ubiquitous website search results with less than intuitive local-search results, Google creates a basket of apples and oranges. While I think this could be said about its basic web search as well, Google Desktop is ironically just like an online catalog—good for finding what you want when you know exactly what it is you’re looking for. Stuff I’ve SeenOf course the company that made local file searching so horrible is working hard to make it better. Microsoft’s Stuff I’ve Seen has had a hard time getting out of beta testing, but promises to be an integral part of its newest operating system, still codenamed Longhorn. Less agnostic than some of the competition, how Microsoft will handle indexing files created by competitors (or more likely, how it won’t work quite as well with them) remains to be seen. Microsoft has released one version of desktop search through MSN, but it only works with Outlook for e-mail. In classic keeping-up-with-the-Joneses style, most web search-engine providers are hitting the scene with a desktop search application. AskJeeves offers a standalone interface, but it does not have much breadth of file type indexing. HotBot Desktop works as an Internet Explorer add-on and includes RSS feeds in its indexing routine. Yahoo Desktop Search is similar to Google’s offering. AOL will incorporate Copernic (see below) into its local search. Commercial solutions include X1, Sleuthhound, and many others, ranging in price from $20 for individuals to several thousand dollars for large organizations. Commercial products usually cover several—and more obscure—file types. Others, like Viapoint’s Smart Organizer, couple the power of Google’s desktop and web search with add-on utilities that help you organize what you find, a nice combination. Unlike web search engine offerings, commercial software packages do not rely on embedded advertising to support their free status. Top of the lineThe best of them all right now is one that probably few people have ever heard of: Copernic. A stand-alone solution, Copernic is quick, thorough, and free—everything you look for in a good desktop app. The interface is intuitive and easy to navigate. Moreover, a few random searches for obscure phrases or words will assure you that the engine is doing its job well. And that’s just the free version. If you’re going to experiment with some of these, look for one that has an interface that makes sense for you and one that indexes the right file types (for instance, some only work with Outlook e-mail, and not Eudora or Mozilla). Be advised, using more than one solution at the same time can bog down your desktop. Finally, be especially careful when indexing shared network drives, or the next call you get might be from a network administrator. I’m not quite ready to give up organizing my files. I am, after all, a librarian. But in a pinch, there are several efficient search engines at my disposal, and the market is just heating up. Contracts and agreements
Southeastern Ohio Library Center will upgrade its 67 member library systems to Horizon; Arras Public Library (France), replacing Opsys.
University of the Arts in London, including ENCompass, Meridian, and LinkFinderPlus.
The National Library of China will add SFX and MetaLib to its suite of Ex Libris software; the University of Melbourne in Australia unifies its software by selecting SFX, MetaLib, and Digitool. AnnouncementsThe Tri-College Library Consortium, serving Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore Colleges in Pennsylvania, has agreed to beta test VTLS’s Verify—a new system for electronic resource management (ERM). Verify joins Endeavor’s Meridian and Ex Libris’ Verde in a growing field of new ERM solutions. Robert Molyneux has joined Sirsi as chief statistician for the Normative Data Project (NDP) for Libraries. Formerly director of statistics and surveys for the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, Molyneux is affectionately known as “Dr. Data” to many friends and colleagues in the library world. The embattled Swets Information Services continues its reorganization by naming former Elsevier executive Arie Jongejan as its new CEO. Jongejan recently left Elsevier after a 24-year tenure; he was CEO of the company’s science and technology division, and is credited with leading the successful development of the ScienceDirect and Scopus products. Acquisitions and alliancesVIP Tone is partnering with IBM Australia to provide an integrated application service provider management solution for schools and the educational boards that manage them. VIP Tone’s School Matrix Enterprise (SME) product will be marketed and supported on IBM’s software and Linux-based server hardware. VIP Tone and Softlink have also announced a distribution partnership: VIP Tone will integrate Softlink’s library management system, Oliver, into the SME Enterprise Resource Planning system. |
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