The Search and Retrieval Expectations of Information Professionals and Desktop Searchers: A View Acr

1
The Search and Retrieval Expectations of
Information Professionals andDesktop Searchers
A View Across Market Sectors

• Federal Government Regulatory Activities
• Richard Huffine, Federal Manager
• National Library Network
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

2
Search . Issues

• Breakthroughs in information retrieval would
  come when researchers gained a deeper
  understanding of how humans process information
  and then endowed machines with analogous
  capabilities
• The Hidden Web, keeps a huge amount of
  information - approximately 500 times the size of
  the conventional Web, according to some estimates
  - concealed from users.
• Javed Mostafa, Scientific American, Feb. 2005,
  Vol. 292, Issue 2
  
• The basic problem is that there is too much out
  there (of dubious quality), making the task of
  research exponentially more complex.

3
Search Solutions

• Enterprise search should perform flawlessly and
  yet make it seem easy.
  
• Basic federated search doesnt protect a user
  from another kind of infoglut - getting
  irrelevant results from multiple search engines
  instead of just one. - Hadley Reynolds
• Simple Advice for Complex Search Solutions
  include
  
• single sign-on,
• appropriate authentication capabilities to limit
  access to protected content to authorized users,
  and above all,
  
• keep it simple.
• Gincel, Richard and Mike Heck, Focusing
  Enterprise Search, InfoWrold, 10/18/2004, Vol.
  26, Issue 42, p.36

4
The EPA Perspective

• Formed in 1970, merged various federal activities
  from across the government
  
• Today, approximately 18,000 staff and 4,000
  on-site contractors
  
• Approximately 4,000 regulatory development staff
• Approximately 2,000 enforcement compliance
  assistance staff
  
• Approximately 3,000 researchers
• Half the 7 billion annual budget is released as
  grants to states, tribes, and research
  institutions
  
• Performs a dual role of understanding the
  environment and regulating various impacts
  
• Primary focus is protecting human health

5
The EPA Experience with Search

• 1971-1999
• Aggregated databases available to librarians and
  selected research staff
  
• 1999-present
• EPA Desktop Library debuts with integrated access
  to aggregators covering broad searches across
  disciplines
  
• 2005-ongoing
• Aggregated news, research, and legal resources
  being implemented within Agency portals, merging
  external and internal content and defining access
  by user profiles
• Recent advances have included selected
  enterprise pricing, dynamic feeds for news
  content, and direct access database capabilities.

6
EPAs Use of Information

• Documentation for litigation or regulatory
  action
  
• Business information sources
• Prevailing wisdom from published sources
• Documentation for Regulation
• Standards, Test methods, and scholarly research
• Commercial publishing of science that supports or
  questions specific approaches
  
• Research in Emerging Issues or Approaches
• Scholarly research in a variety of disciplines
  spanning biological, medical, and environmental
  sciences
  
• Trends in commercial production and product
  development that may trigger environmental
  issues
  

7
Value of Aggregation

• The use of aggregated sources can
• Assist in scoping a research project
• Introduce related concepts that complement
  initial descriptors
  
• Provide relatively comprehensive coverage in
  specific research disciplines
  
• Provide access to sources that, purchased
  individually would be too expensive for an
  institution to provide
  
• Aggregated sources offer Federal staff several
  specific benefits
  
• Pre-definition of various disciplines and
  sciences
  
• Micro-purchase capabilities
• Breadth and depth of coverage of specific
  journals and broad areas of research
  
• Access to news sources, press advisories,
  peer-reviewed, scholarly, and popular journals
  with searches across or within each of these
  classifications

8
Limitations to Aggregation

• Platform and format irregularities
• Everyone has their own bells and whistles but
  there are very few standards shared across the
  industry for citations, cross-platform search, or
  integration with other sources
• Pricing inconsistencies
• Every negotiation seems to be a new experience
  for both vendor and library pricing varies and
  licensing agreements do very little to define
  appropriate use
• Publisher exclusivity
• Both through their own platforms or through
  exclusive agreements with specific aggregators
  
• Portability and re-use limited
• There is little clarity understanding regarding
  how Federal staff use the content being accessed
  and how pricing, integration,and other issues
  would make those uses easier

9
What the Federal Sector Needs

• Federal Staff
• Need to search aggregated content, internal
  content, and independent external sources from
  one search
  
• Need seamless authentication with accountability
  in order to improve use and demonstrate the value
  of purchased content to leadership
  
• Need easy collection and export of citations to
  manage their own knowledge and support their
  research
  
• Federal Libraries
• Need partners in the aggregation community, not
  adversaries
  
• Need sliding scale cost models that reflect the
  variable value of resources they offer
  
• Need to guide the integration of external content
  into Agency Intranets, portals, and other
  knowledge management environments

10
Conclusions

• Aggregators offer an important service to the
  Federal sector
  
• Reducing the time it takes to search
• Enhancing the search experience
• Making the most of the time and resources of the
  Federal Government
  
• The future requires aggregators to improve
  interfaces, authentication, and cost models
  
• The Federal sector is a unique client with
  requirements that aggregators are uniquely
  qualified to address

11
Contacts

• U.S. EPA National Library Network
• Richard Huffine, huffine.richard_at_epa.gov,
  202-566-0703
  
• www.epa.gov/natlibra/
• Federal Libraries and Information Centers
  Committee
  
• Kathryn Mendenhall, kmen_at_loc.gov, 202-707-1312
• www.loc.gov/flicc
• Special Libraries Association, Government
  Information Division
  
• A new forum for discussion and professional
  development in municipal, federal, and
  international governments
  
• www.sla.org