September 27, 2004
Purdue Libraries 'Megasearch' tool enhances research, teaching
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A new library database management system is giving Purdue University students and faculty access to high-quality reference resources that are just a computer mouse click away.
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Michael Fosmire, an associate professor of library science who led the "Megasearch" implementation team, said, "It's easy for students to fill their information needs by finding 'something' just by typing a few words into Google. Our goal is to give students this same convenient access to higher quality research material."
Fosmire and his team from Purdue Libraries customized ENCompass, a database management system from Endeavor Information Systems, to enable Purdue users to search numerous databases simultaneously. Fosmire said the databases cover subjects from science to engineering to liberal arts and include articles in research and scholarly journals, Lexis-Nexis (a database of newspaper articles) and more mainstream publications, such as Science and Nature.
"We call information found on the Internet the 'stuff people are giving away,'" Fosmire said. "Megasearch can help users find information that is better thought-out, documented and less biased than the information they can find on the Internet."
Users can access Megasearch by going to the Purdue Libraries' home page and clicking on the "Articles and Databases" pull-down menu. Megasearch is the fourth item down.
Megasearch generally finds relevant information in the form of abstracts, or summaries, some with links to the full text of articles. Other information will include citations that users can access using subscriptions the university has purchased. Fosmire said one of the reasons Purdue Libraries chose Endeavor Information Systems' ENCompass product is that the company already supplies the software that runs the libraries' electronic card catalog.
"This gives students and professors a lot of options," Fosmire said. "We're trying to grow the audience for this tool to improve both research and teaching at Purdue."
Fosmire said Megasearch has been online since last fall, but at this point it hasn't been widely used, or at least widely used enough.
"Our goal in implementation was to make information sources competitive with Internet search engines in terms of convenience, while improving the students' information literacy," Fosmire said. "With a single search box and one-click selections of databases, Web surfers, whether they are undergraduate English majors or faculty researchers, will feel right at home using this interface, and they will get much more high-quality information from their searching efforts."
Fosmire and his library colleagues aren't done yet. A new implementation team, headed by Priscilla Geahigan, professor of library science will integrate Megasearch with Web-CT, which is course-management software for faculty. With Web-CT, professors will be able to include clickable access to research sources in their students' course material.
"We're in an era when many journals are publishing first in an electronic format, so the whole cycle of knowledge getting to users is shortened," Fosmire said. "We need to take advantage of the increased speed and ease of access without compromising information integrity."
Writer: Mike Lillich, (765) 494-2077, mlillich@purdue.edu
Source: Michael Fosmire, (765) 494-2859, fosmire@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
Related Web sites:
Purdue University Libraries Megasearch
PHOTO CAPTION:
Michael Fosmire, an associate professor of library science, led the team that implemented Megasearch, a Google-style information-search interface that both provides higher quality information than general Internet search engines and contributes to students' information literacy. The next step for Megasearch is to be implemented into WEB-CT, course management software for faculty. (Purdue News Service photo/David Umberger)
A publication-quality photo is available at https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/+2004/fosmire-megasearch.jpg
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