Alcatel-Lucent has had an internal library website called InfoView since 1993. They always had pages for the various diverse resources they maintained for Alcatel-Lucent employees, such as books, serials, artifacts, market reports, and discounts. Each page had two search boxes: one for a "site" search on all pages and one searching the…

Today data is everywhere. Businesses, governments, universities, scientists, and individuals are creating it at an unprecedented level and pace. Everybody is talking about it. We were just getting used to the concept of gigabytes of data. Then, it changed to petabytes. Now, various technology firms claim that more than an exabyte of data is…

The year 2011 was the PALNI (Private Academic Library Network of Indiana) consortium's "rookie season" for the implementation of Primo, the 2010 Discovery Layer 500 race winner. In this article, the authors report on their transition to the cloud within Ex Libris Ltd.'s Primo TotalCare environment: their preparation, the steps involved…

This article describes the Project Lefty, a search system that, at a minimum, adds a layer on top of traditional federated search tools that will make the wait for results more worthwhile for researchers. At best, Project Lefty improves search queries and relevance rankings for web-scale discovery tools to make the results themselves more relevant…

ScanGrants (www.scangrants.com) is a free, online listing of grants, scholarships, and other types of funding in the health sciences. It is basically a launch pad for anyone looking for money to fund medical research or community/public health projects, or to finance their education in various healthcare fields. The goal is to enable researchers,…

Discusses various search strategies and tools that can be used for searching on the Internet, including search engines and search directories; Boolean searching; metasearching; relevancy ranking; automatic phrase detection; backlinks; natural-language searching; clustering and cataloging information; image searching; customization and portals;…

Discusses mental models for online searching and the importance of understanding the user mental models and their search needs in order to teach searching and to help them effectively. Suggests that librarians should try to match the user's perspective first, not just teach a search strategy that is too complicated. (LRW)

Presents a template for teaching traditional library research and one for incorporating the Web. Highlights include the differences between directories and search engines; devising search strategies; creating search terms; how to choose search engines; evaluating online resources; helpful Web sites; and how to read URLs to evaluate a Web site's…

Explores successful techniques for integrating the World Wide Web into day-to-day reference library services. Highlights include: determining when to use the Web and when and how to use search tools; the importance of search statement format; training and practicing with the Web; virtual reference and subject specialist pages; and electronic…

Outlines the features and drawbacks of Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS). Praises the ease of use for end users and the variety of documents and other information available, but cautions users about searching problems resulting from the use of relevance ranking schemes. Calls for greater librarian involvement. (EA)

Explores ways for librarians to improve search strategies in a globally networked computing environment. Discusses browsing versus more structured search strategies; thinking processes and information-seeking processes; supplementing the traditional reference interview with computer-based reference assistants; models for automating the reference…