Finding Resources On Your Web Site

1. Finding Resources On Your Web Site • Aims of Talk: • Review approaches taken by UK HE and Public Library communities to indexing web sites • Discussion of findings • Describe future developments Brian Kelly UK Web Focus UKOLN University of Bath Bath, BA2 7AY Email: B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk URL: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ UKOLN is funded by the Library and Information Commission, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based.

2. UKOLN and UK Web Focus • UKOLN: • UK Office for Library and Information Networking • Small research and advisory group based at University of Bath • Funded by JISC and LIC (MLAC from 1 April) to advise Higher Education and Library (and Museums & Archives from 1 April) communities on digital networking issues • UK Web Focus: • JISC-funded post to advise HE community on web matters

3. Contents • Background • A Survey of Two Communities • Comparisons • Interesting Examples • Other Developments • Conclusions

4. Importance of Indexing • Design and browsing tends to be given priority • But: • Users will search as well as browse • Users may not understand navigation structure / metaphors which are obvious to members of organisation • Searching becomes more important as web site grows

5. Which To Choose? Can choose byreading reviews, web sites, etc. or by looking at usage in community • Glimpse • Harvest • ht://Dig • ICE • iHound (ICATT) • Index Search (Xavatoria) • Index Server (Microsoft) • IndexMySite (remote) • Infoseek - Ultraseek • Intermediate Search • intraSearch(remote) • I-Search • Isearch • ITMS • Isys:web • Java Applets • JHLSearch • JObjects QuestAgent • Lycos / InMagic • Magnifi Enterprise Server • Matt's SimpleSearch • Microsoft Index Server • Microsoft Site Server • MiniSearch (remote) • MondoSearch • Muscat • NetResults (now SearchKey Plus) • Netscape - Compass Server • OpenText - LiveLink • Perl Scripts • Perlfect Search • Phantom (Maxum) • PicoSearch (remote) • Etc. • Alkaline (Vestris) • AltaVista - Search Intranet • ASTAWare SearchKey • atomz Search (remote) • BooleanSearch • BBDBot • BRS/Search (Dataware) • Compass Server (Netscape) • Cybotics • DataWare BRS/Search • DocFather (formerly SiteSearch) • dtSearch Web • Excalibur RetrievalWare • EWS (Excite) • Excerpt (Obsolete) • Extense • FAST Search Server • Findex (code library) • Folio siteDirector • FreeFind (remote) • Fulcrum Indexing software from <http://searchtools.com/tools/tools.html> Which to choose? What software may be obsolete? What does remote mean?

6. Two Surveys • Two surveys have been carried out: • Summer 1999: a survey of search engines used on institutional UK University web sites (updated recently) • January 2000: a survey of search engines used on UK Public Library web sites

7. Characteristics of HE Community • The UK Higher Education community: • Long-standing involvement in Internet and Web • Much technical expertise available (e.g. PhD students) • Early involvement in web by enthusiasts • Initially little finance available, so interest in public domain and open source software • More financial resources becoming available as senior managers become aware of strategic importance of Web

8. Findings: UK HE Web Sites • Main findings of two surveys: Nos. (Mar) Software Nos. (Jul) 32  ht://Dig 25 17  eXcite 19 15  Microsoft 12 6  Harvest 8 8  Ultraseek 7 29 — Other 29 51  None 60 Totals 160 163 • Article published in Ariadne issue 21 - <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue21/webwatch/> • Results (including update on survey) available from:<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/surveys/uk-he-search-engines/>

9. Popular Products: ht://Dig • ht://Dig • Now used at 32 (up from 25) UK HEIs • Freely available • New version released in December 1999 • Own domain with well-designed web site • Robot to index multiple servers See <http://www.htdig.org/> • Oxford Case Study • 131 servers • 438,500 resources • Indexes MS Office, PDF, etc. files (external parser) Case Studies produced by Helen Sargan (Cambridge)

10. Popular Products: eXcite • eXcite • Now used at 17 (down from 19) UK HEIs • By-product of the eXcite Internet search engine • Bug announced in January 1998. Notice not updated since! • Time to change? See <http://www.excite.com/navigate/>

11. Popular Products: Microsoft • Microsoft • Several Microsoft indexing tools available (FrontPage, Index Server, SiteServer, …) • Most powerful is the SiteServer indexer • Now used at 15 (up from 12) UK HEIs • Essex Case Study • 16 servers indexed • 11,500 resources • Constrained searches possible • Indexes MS Office, PDF, etc. files

12. Popular Products: Ultraseek • Ultraseek: • Used at 8 (up from 7) UK HEIs • Powerful but expensive • See <http://software.infoseek.com/> • Cambridge Case Study • 232 servers • 188,000 resources • Weightings given to meta tags • Useful logs and reports

13. Popular Products: Harvest • Harvest: • Now used at 6 UK HEIs (down from 8) • For IR research use? • See <http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/harvest/>

14. Other Popular Products Output from SWISH • SWISH / SWISH-E • Used at 5 HEIs • Dated? • Webinator • Used at 4 HEIs • Useful functionality • See <http://www.thunderstone.com/webinator/> Output from Webinator

15. Use of Third Party Services • Small usage of third parties to provide indexes: • FreeFind (Used at 2 HEIs) and AltaVista (Used at 1 HEI) • Why not more use by 50+ institutions with no search facility? • Benefits from services provided by popular large-scale search engine • Low cost (free?) • Incomplete coverage? • Loss of control, advertising, …

16. Characteristics of Public Library Community • Public Library Community: • Relatively new to Internet and Web • Less technical expertise available • Large OPACs available • Often part of Council's web site Note: "Well Connected: A Snapshot of Local Authority Websites" (Society of Information Technology Management report) found that in 1999 69% of local authority websites did not have a search facility

17. Results • Survey carried out on 4-5th January 2000 • Results for 137 web sites: • 49% have no search facility?! • Of those that do: 45% (18) use Microsoft 7.5% (3) use Domino 7.5% (3) use Muscat 40% (16) another solution • Comments • Some sites use the general Council search facility and in some sites the Council search facility can be used to search areas (e.g. Library) • Some sites very small (1 page with opening hours) • See <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/surveys/pub-lib-search-jan-2000/survey.html>

18. Popular Products: Microsoft • Microsoft: • Several Microsoft options available • Used in 18 public libraries • Sometimes can restrict searches to selected areas • Popularity indicativeof use of Windows NTin public libraries

19. Popular Products: Muscat • Muscat Empower: • Powerful licensed product • Agent technology • Email alerting of changed resources • Foreign language support • Used in 2 Public Libraries (full Council web site only) • Muscat FX also used(1 site) • See <http://www.muscat.com/>

20. Popular Products: Domino • Lotus Domino (Notes): • Powerful, licensed web server system • Used at 3 Public Libraries • See <http://www.lotus.com/home.nsf/welcome/domino>

21. Home-Grown Solution • A small number of Public Libraries have developed their own indexing software. Leeds Public Library have a good example: • Various areas can be searched • Multiple search terms • Boolean operators • Attractive interface • Software: • Written in C++ • Interrogates file when they are live • Directories can be excluded • Operational for 3 years

22. Try Them For Yourself • Interfaces to UK University search engines are available providing a single location for evaluation • The page also provides a link toorganisational search pages • The resources are grouped in alphabetical orderand by search engine What does Aberdeen's search facility provide? What functionality do libraries using Domino provide? See <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/surveys/>

23. Other Developments • What else is happening to indexing of these communities? • eLib Hybrid Libraries • National search engines • Local initiatives

24. eLib Hybrid Libraries • eLib Phase 3 includes "Hybrid Library" projects: • Help users find electronic (web, OPAC, etc.) and "real world" resources • Includes regional and subject-specific approaches MusicOnline search of Music Catalogues BUILDER search of eLib Phase 3 web sites

25. National Search Engines • ACDC (Academic Directory) • (Unfunded) pilot of index of ac.uk domain based on distributed approach using Harvest • Set up in March 1996 • Lack of development effort resulted in degraded service (e.g. indexer not aware of JavaScript code) • No longer being developed? http://acdc.hensa.ac.uk/

26. Institutional Developments • Maestro robot (Dundee): • Indexes Scottish resources • Volunteer effort • North East Universities (UNIS4NE): • Appearance of cross-searching • Actually interface to HotBot / AltaVista

27. Other Possibilities • What other developments may we expect: • Increased indexing in institutions of other web sites (opposition / friends) • Development of a HE (or public sector?) national search engine • "Surface-scraping" of institutional search engines • Leave it to commercial sector • European developments • New developments (XML / RDF / etc.)

28. Indexing Remote Sites • May see increased indexing of remote sites within institutions: • Examples provided by Dundee and BUILDER • Feeling of ownership • Easily done • Can develop enhancements locally • Increased server load locally • Increased server load remotely • Increased network load • Not scalable • Unnecessary duplication

29. "Meta-Search" Possibility • A collection of interfaces to search engines for UK HEIs is available • This could be used as the basis of a "meta-searcher": • Indexes aren't duplicated • Local site responsible for content of its index • A hack • Problems with maintenance

30. Commercial Solutions • Could leave searching to commercial world: • No costs to institution / HE community • Results too broad • Distracting interface • Little scope for tailoring • Not integrated with non-Web services

31. European Developments (1) • DESIRE project: • EU-funded project with resource discovery component • Nordic Web Index provides index across Nordic countries (but partly discontinued due to lack of funding) • See <http://www.desire.org/html/services/resourcediscovery/indexing/> • REIS: • Pilot project on Research & Education Indexing Service for Europe • See <http://www.terena.nl/projects/reis/>

32. European Developments (2) • Surfnet: • Dutch Research network service • Use of AltaVista search software for national index • But how widely used is it? • Is there a user demand for this type of service? http://www.surfnet.nl/en/surfnet-searchtools/

33. What About Metadata? • Metadata can: • Improve search results • Provide structured information (for automated processing) which can provide richer services: • Fielded searches • Limit searches (e.g. only Library pages on Council web site) • Web site administration • Alternative browsing interfaces • Tools, standards, etc. becoming available • Expected growth area

34. Example • Exploit Interactive web magazine (www.exploit-lib.org) is using metadata to provide enhanced searching: • Search for foo in: • Issue 2 or in issue 2 and 4 (this is possible using directory structure) • Feature Articles(needs metadata) • Articles about EU-funded projects • Etc. • Combinations of above • Also provides alternative browsingstructures

35. JISC Developments • DNER (Distributed National Electronic Resource): • Seamless access to national resources • What about local resources? • Need for "institutional portals" • RDN • Resource Discovery Network • Builds on work of eLib subject gateways • Based on standards (Z39.50, whois++, LDAP, etc.) • Lessons for institutions

36. Conclusions Questions welcome • To conclude: • No clear "best buy" for indexing software • Probably some to avoid • In 2 years time are you likely to: • Still be using same software? • Have changed software / architecture? • If changes likely, need to think about change migration strategies, interoperability issues, etc. • Need for user studies (not covered) • Useful Resources • http://SearchTools.com/ • http://www.searchenginewatch.com/ • http://www.builder.com/Servers/AddSearch/