Developing an Academic Search Engine

(Via RLG ShelfLife) Since a long list of problems are encountered using commercial search engines for academic use -- such as a frequent inability to retrieve academic sources and inconsistent attention to long-term availability of the information -- a team at the Bielefeld University Library in Germany set out to design a search engine, called BASE or "Bielefeld Academic Search Engine", configured specifically for academic use. The team hoped that with one single access point, founded on state-of-the-art search engine technology, they could enable access to the heterogeneous academic resources of subject-based bibliographic databases, catalogues, electronic newspapers, document servers and academic Web pages. Using the Norwegian company Fast's search engine Alltheweb as a starting point, the team created a search engine that is both modular and transparent in construction. The user interface employs a basic Google-like single line search box, plus an advanced search option with added functionality to refine and restrict search results even further. Further developments are in the works, including the ability to make local views of the search engine possible through establishment of search and result parameters. For collaboration with other systems, the team plans to activate features enabling distributed search and connection with external indexes.

Friedrich Summann & Norbert Lossau, "Search Engine Technology and Digital Libraries : Moving from Theory to Practice," D-Lib Magazine (Sep 2004)

Posted by Tom on September 16, 2004