Internet Librarian International 2000 Conference - 20-22 March 2000Brian Kelly gave a talk on Finding Resources On Your Web Site at the Internet Librarian International 2000 Conference held at Olympia, London on 20-22nd March 2000. The talk was given from 3.00-3.45 on Wednesday 22nd March.
Many organisations are prepared to invest significant amounts of money on the design of their web site, but fail to devote adequate resources to site indexing software, which many visitors to a web site will use to find the resources they are looking for. This paper reviews the approaches to the provision of indexing software made within one community (UK University and Colleges) and identifies the advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches (which include use of licensed software such as Ultraseek, free software such as ht://Dig, and use of remote indexes such as Freefind and Infoseek. The paper provides recommendations on the approaches which organisations should take in providing searching capabilities on their web site. The paper concludes by arguing that web site indexing software, in isolation, is not sufficient to satisfy the needs of the end user, and consideration should be given to other issues including cross-searching and interoperability with non-web systems.
The paper reports on the indexing software used in over 150 University web sites and reviews the capabilities of the software found. The paper describes interesting approaches, such as the use of remote web indexing, interfaces to remote search services and cross-searching. The paper concludes by considering end user requirements for cross-searching and searching non-web resources, and describes approaches being taken.
The review of search engine software used in UK University web sites will be of interest to members of this community, and also to similar communities, such as public libraries. The main body of the paper will be of interest to a number of people including organisations which run web sites and wish to be informed on the issues associated with providing a search facility. The paper will also be of interest to those involved in developing specialist search engine services.
Brian Kelly is "UK Web Focus" - a JISC-funded post which provides advice to UK higher educational institutions on web developments. Brian has given many talks at conferences on a variety of aspects of the web. He has given talks on web standards, including an Update on Standards for Web Authoring at LibTech International 99. Other presentations given recently include a poster presentation at the International WWW8 conference (held in Toronto in May 1999) and participation in a panel session at "Online Information 98".
Brian has also published many articles. Two articles ("The Evolution of Web Protocols" and "How Is My Web Community Doing? Monitoring Trends In Web Service Provision") were published in the Journal of Documentation in January 1999. He publishes regular columns in the Ariadne and Exploit Interactive web magazines.
Mr Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus
UKOLN
University of Bath
BATH
BA2 7AY
Email: b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
Phone: 01225 323943
FAX: 01225 826838