Just a few thoughts --

I think Ian has hit a key nail on the head about the indexes for paid
(licensed) content. From what I've seen and heard its seems relatively easy
to harvest the LMS catalogue, repository and even other *local* data sources
into VuFind et al. Issues of data normalisation are not trivial but at least
the *amount* of data is relatively small. BTW JISC delivered a report of IR
and LMS interoperability a while back (2009) that touched on some of these
issues (OCRIS report see
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/reports/2009/scholcommslinksfinalreport.a
spx ). It discusses some of the data problems

So companies like ExLibris and Serial Solutions have put a lot of effort
--negotiated with publishers etc --to get *huge* indexes of licensed
content. The indexes are hosted centrally and made available for local
discovery (I means so a student can get to the stuff their library has
licensed) . It seems like they typically cover about 85% of the licensed
content of a library. This data/index is not available as a free or open
dataset. Hosting, updating, organising etc such a dataset is certainly not
easy or cheap. One developer I spoke to said that it makes Amazon look
trivial (he was ex Amazon)

Of course Google indexes a lot of this content too.  Google Scholar (which
itself is one of these 'vertical search or discovery services)  can be
linked to a resolver so students can be linked from Google to the
'appropriate' copy (i.e. the full text licensed by their library). If that
worked well enough there would probably be little demand for VuFind or
Summon or Primo etc. If (when?) it worked well enough it would meet Ian's
demand for an approach where  'users don't want and often don't bother to
search in multiple places to find information, so it is our job to bring it
together and make it easier for them'

BASE (from Bielefeld university--' one of the world's most voluminous search
engines' ) does a pretty good job a indexing global (mostly open access)
repository data. http://base.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/en/index.php

In summary, unlike bib data for printed books, I haven't yet seen a free or
'open data' approach to indexes of licensed or even open access (mostly
journal article) content . The MESUR project put a ton of this data together
for the purpose of getting *usage* data but that project ended in 2008. So
even though I think I've heard (or did I imagine this?) about people using
or planning to use VuFind or similar OSS approaches to *search* these
indexes they still got to pay (SerSols etc) for the indexes . Is that right?

Ken
Ken Chad Consulting Ltd
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-----Original Message-----
From: Open source software in libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Ross Gardler
Sent: 11 February 2011 14:01
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [LIS-OSS] Getting from "here" to "there"? (Re: Welcome!)

No thoughts at all on my questions below?

On 03/02/2011 12:40, Ross Gardler wrote:
> On 03/02/2011 12:10, Ian Haydock wrote:
>> Chris and Matthew,
>>
>>                     We're looking for a next-gen search interface/
resource
>> discovery system/ sliced bread replacement at the moment. To my mind I
think
>> the feature that makes them worthwhile is the tie-in with your paid
>> resources - in other words the single search box for users that we've all
>> long talked about. Users don't want and often don't bother to search in
>> multiple places to find information, so it is our job to bring it
together
>> and make it easier for them. In the fuure when students are paying up to
£9K
>> per annum the grumbles will only get worse if we don't make it
easier.......
>>
>>    VuFind is great but it can't do all of that (because the big index
only
>> comes at a cost). Hence I've been wondering whether the open source
future
>> instead lies with the information that we build ourselves locally (eg the
>> LMS and the Repository), blended with the paid via this new interface? It
>> might take a while to get there however, as most of us have considerable
>> investment in those big monolithic LMS that Chris mentions....
>
> Are there any interim steps in getting from "here" to "there"?
>
> Would you be looking at doing work internally, subcontracting, buy in or
> a combination of these?
>
> Is this a common need across multiple libraries?
>
> Ross