More on Federated Searching

1. Patrons can search all the library's resources: catalog, databases, e-books, and online book stores, with one search.
2. It has limiters that users can use to exclude irrelavant returns. These include full-text, date range and boolean operators.
3. 360 Search has a "search in progress" indicator that shows the user how the search is progressing. While the search is in progress, the user can begin to view and work with the returned results.
4. Returned results can be viewed in three separate areas. 1)Clustering, is a feature that allows the user to organize or group the results in various ways: journal title, author, date or topic. 2) The results are also grouped by Source, a way that helps users learn which resources commonly have materials in their subject area. 3) The article results column can be organized by date, title, author, and source.

If you've already used 360 Search and have been completely overwhelmed by the number of returns, you have to keep in mind a number of things.  We know that sifting through hundreds or thousands of returns isn't a good use of a person's time. That's why the clustering features are so important. Use them to narrow down the results by the various catagories.

Each database is unique and has a specially designed search apparatus that is built to make the best use of it's content. A federated search engine can't duplicate the specialized searching. Look at the Source results to find databases that are relavant to your subject and then go directly to that database to do a more thorough search.

Finally, investing more time ahead in developing a list of appropriate search terms can save time and reduce the number of irrelevant results.

360 Search gives our students and faculty a tool to discover new resources available in the MLC Library. It's a tool to find purchased online material that users don't know is there. It's a great starting place to get a variety of resources for a research project.