Addressing a Discovery Tool’s Shortcomings with a Supplemental Health Sciences-Specific Federated Search Engine

ABSTRACT

Some discovery tools may not necessarily be the best resources for searching the health sciences literature. This is especially true when the discovery tool is not a vendor-neutral product or when it does not deep search full-text electronic resources. Therefore, supplementing a discovery tool with a health sciences-specific federated search engine could be a viable option. This is a review of one university’s decision-making and implementation process for adding a health sciences-specific supplemental federated search engine. Included is a 30-month usage analysis of the federated search engine, along with website usability testing results.

KEYWORDS:

• Comparison analysis
• Deep Web Technologies medical searcher
• discovery services
• ExLibris Primo
• federated searching
• medical schools
• university library services
• usability testing
• usage statistics