Serials Solutions merged with another federated search company, called WebFeat, in February. WebFeat have their own library of connectors, and it has recently been confirmed that this will be made available to Serials Solutions customers. Our customer services representative cannot tell us exactly when it will be available but an announcement is due in the next few weeks to provide more information.
The two connectors which we had previously commissioned Serials Solutions to ‘fast-track’ for development were British Education Index on Dialog and Swetswise. Both of these should become available via WebFeat’s connector library.
Will databases which are not currently cross-searchable (e.g. Swetswise) be included in future? If so, when will this happen?
Is it possible to limit searches to full-text?
SuperSearch would only know if a result was full-text if there was some kind of flag in the metadata returned by the source database to indicate it. Since source databases do not reliably indicate full-text in this way, SuperSearch is unable to filter results in order to limit them to full-text. With some resources, such as Wiley Interscience, it isn’t possible to limit to full-text even in the native interface, and federated search engines can’t do things, which the native interface can’t do.
However, one option would be to include the phrase “Full text” in the database description where relevant, in the same way that we currently indicate, “Not cross searchable”. The user could then choose to search only databases that are majority full text. One possible disadvantage would be that, by choosing to search only full text resources, users may neglect abstracting databases or databases containing a mixture of abstracts and full-text. On the other hand, it would alert users to resources most likely to provide full text results.
The Article Linker buttons and links in both SuperSearch itself and the native interfaces will also help users navigate through to full text where it is available through any of our subscriptions, and directs them to search the catalogue for a print copy if no electronic copy is available.
Can I search all of the cross-searchable databases in one search form?
Yes, you can select all the cross-searchable databases by selecting ‘Select All’. But this is not recommended as it may take some time before the first set of results is returned.
If you already know the best databases to search for the subject, you can select them from the ‘Search by database’ list, otherwise it is recommended that you narrow your search by subject first. This will automatically narrow the databases searched to those considered by the subject librarian to be the most relevant to the subject.
Why use SuperSearch?
If search results are not as comprehensive as results obtained through the individual databases, why should I recommend Supersearch to students/staff?
- Supersearch is a good place to find material quickly, however it’s not meant to replace more complex searching of the individual databases.
- You may wish to use Supersearch to help users determine which of the databases will produce the most relevant results for in-depth searching through the native interface.
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It could be marketed to students as direct academic replacement for Google searching.
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For LC staff, SuperSearch can be used for checking of availability of Inter Library loan requests. (searching OPAC, Scholar Google and electronic databases in one search.
