PurpleSearch Update

Currently PurpleSearch is undergoing some “restauration”. These activities are however initiated by the Central Medical Library of the UMCG and mainly focussed on staff and students of the UMCG to optimize PurpleSearch for the discovery and simultaneous search of medical information. We call it “restauration” because it will put functionality back into PurpleSearch that wás developed and installed (some of it already available when still called LiveTrix), but was left out of the first public version lauch of Purplesearch in 2008. The context-sensitive help and the workbench will return, as well as a refine & merge option. We wil report back when these functionalities will become available. You can have a look at some screenshot of them right here or look them up on this blog.
The Library of the University of Groningen will currently not invest in extra and/or new developments for PurpleSearch.

PurpleSearch DEVELOPED FEATURES Screenshots

Here a bunch of screenshots and some info about developed features that are available for Purplesearch, but not yet in production.

A short list: context-sensitive help, rating & sorting, facetting, workbench, database selection, Cluster mapping and Timeline.

Have a look at the slides and watch whats new at the end!

• See ALL Presentations mentioning LIVETRIX
• See ALL Presentations mentioning PURPLESEARCH

PurpleSearch Screenshots

This is the first of a series of screenshots of PurpleSearch in development. Much functionality has been developed, but is invisible so far. We will release more details in the future and document it.

PurpleSearch Browser Tools Updated

• Add PurpleSearch quick search to your browser’s search field (Firefox 2 or later, Internet Explorer 7 or later)
• You can use the “add RUG proxy“ bookmarklet on any page you are visiting to view it through the university proxy. If we have a subscription to the site, this yields full-text access.
  If not, the bookmarklet has no effect. (For more on bookmarklets, see e.g. this)Note that if you use Google Scholar, you can often tell it what institution you are from, to have it link you to articles via your institution’s proxy.
  Note that this mechanism is not aware of subscriptions, so such links to a lookup do not necessarily lead to full text.
  (configure this via Scholar Preferences, go to Library Links and search for your institution’s name, then Save)

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• PurpleSearch Widget (via Widgetbox or Netvibes)
  
• iGoogle MultiTab Purplesearch gadget (add to Google Toolbar | add to iGoogle)
• 
• Google Toolbar Search Button

PurpleSearch Twitter

Started the PurpleSearch twitter account today. It will focus on relevant topics around search in general, and more specific on semantic and federated search.

ICT-term Plan 2010 – 2014 : support for PurpleSearch

The ICT -term  Plan 2010-2014 of the University of Groningen is a Blueprint for IT spending over the next five years in the field of ICT and innovations. The plan is compiled by the university’s ICT Strategy Committee. The plan includes five areas within which ICT is applied research, education, scientific information, organization and infrastructure.

ICT-term Plan 2010 – 2014 [PDF] (in Dutch)

About PurpleSearch:

• p.22:  (translated) The ICT-strategic committee proposes to give an  impuls to the development of the searchtool PurpleSearch for the coming planning period ….
• p.22: (translated) Search Purple adequately supports users in finding information using various Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 technologies.
  The application provides Google-like manner direct search and guides the process with adding useful suggestions (recommanderfunctie). In addition,Purple Search can provide facilities such as rapid calculation of impact factors, the addition of abstracts,
  abstracts, book reviews, etc. Ultimately, Purple Search will act as a personalized search tool with capabilities of personal alert….
• p.23: (translated) Recommendation 16: The committee recommends the further development of Purple Search 1.5 additional FTE manpower to finance over 2 years, ie k € 225
  (Aanbeveling 16:
  De commissie beveelt aan voor de verdere ontwikkeling van PurpleSearch 1,5 fte extra menskracht te financieren, gedurende 2 jaar, dat wil zeggen k€ 225.)

This is good news for the further development of PurpleSearch.
This blog will report on the process and on relevant issues on the topic of search tools.

Project Lefty: More Bang for the Search Query

PROJECT LEFTY is a search system that, at a minimum, adds a layer on top of traditional federated search tools that will make the wait for results more worthwhile for researchers.

Read the post in Magazines > Computers in Libraries > April 2010

Project Lefty: More Bang for the Search Query

BASE -Bielefeld Academic Search engine – Introduction on Video

On blip.tv:

A demonstration of the  the basic operation of BASE -Bielefeld Academic Search engine.

It is a search engine “especially for academic open access web resources.”
Finds free scholarly articles, theses, images, etc.

The Shortcomings of Full-Text Searching – Video

Video: The Shortcomings of Full-Text Searching

Author:Jeffrey Beall

Date: Apr 15, 2010

Length: 9 mins 49 secs – 17 slide(s)

WorldCat UK Mashathon 2010

UK’s first WorldCat Mashathon and the fourth Mashed Libraries event will  be held together in Liverpool, UK on May 13-14, 2010.

This event is sponsored by  Liverpool John Moores University, the OCLC Developer Network and Ex Libris, this joint event will be held at the world famous Parr St Studio 2, Liverpool, UK.

This is a very interesting new collaboration between Ex Libris and OCLC involving the Worldcat API.