The document outlines the development of a federated search tool by Laura Solomon, the Library Services Manager at the Ohio Public Library Information Network, in response to dissatisfaction from public librarians. The tool, which has been in progress since 2004, includes features like record merging, relevance ranking, and user-friendly enhancements such as spell check and a progress bar. It emphasizes ongoing development and customization to improve user experience.

1. Federated Search: Growing Your Own Tools Laura Solomon Library Services Manager Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) [email_address] www.oplin.org

2. databases

3. databases

4. databases = Ohio Web Library

5. A need for federated searching

7. Federated search since 2004

8. Ohio public librarians dissatisfied

9. First steps

12. Pazpar2 Record merging Relevance ranking Record sorting Faceted results

13. First feedback

14. Fitting the pieces together

15. Still need a piece!

16. Launch date set

17. Making it user-friendly http://www.bugbash.net/comic/7.html

18. We added: Stripping entries for problem characters Specific search categories A “searching” progress bar Spell check

19. All the pieces: (Customized) pazpar2 engine OpenTranslators Yahoo spellchecker API EZProxy Custom page design Custom scripting

20. Results

21. Never done

22. http:// www.ohioweblibrary.org

24. Questions? Laura Solomon Library Services Manager Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) [email_address] www.ohioweblibrary.org