Aiding Research and Electronic Content Discovery through Meta-search based on Open Source Initiatives

Abstract

The goal of electronic content discovery with Metasearching is to investigate issues related to locating, retrieving, and promulgating information in large networked environments. The Internet and WWW provide a challenging environment for deployment of these services. The needs of information publishers - to maximize audience reach - and the user - to minimize information overload - require advanced technical solutions and investigative research. As the deep web of information grows at an exponential rate, efforts to make the technology more manageable and affordable are highly in demand. Applying advanced information retrieval techniques i.e. meta-search and open link resolver are some approach to such efforts. In this paper we present our attempt to apply open source initiatives for retrieval model based on NISO Standards, relevance mechanisms and a meta search technique as an integrated electronic resource discovery system for the Deep Web. This paper discusses challenges and issues involved in Meta-Searching, as well as practical issues such as retrieval effectiveness, usability and scalability.