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VU Library wants your input on next-generation research tool

Posted 9/21/2007

Vanderbilt University Library users can locate and access quickly an expanding variety of resources – print, digital and electronic – thanks to a new computer service initially called AlphaSearch.

A draft of the new program was installed in August for review and comment, and the library will collect feedback throughout the fall.  Please visit http://alphasearch.library.vanderbilt.edu and try out the new system. There is a feedback form included on the page.

“Although it will contain records from Acorn, Vanderbilt’s current online library catalog, AlphaSearch goes well beyond the current concept of the library catalog,” said Jody Combs, director of Vanderbilt’s Digital Library. “AlphaSearch can grow to contain information about all of the library’s resources, and, eventually, even campus resources that are not traditionally associated with the library catalog.”

Here are just a few of the features of AlphaSearch:
o    Designed to be fast and intuitive in searches
o    Ability to add new catalogs and/or resources to it over time
o    A meta-search component that enables user to simultaneously search across many article indexes and databases
o    Ability to sort searches with by different items such as relevancy ranking or date of publication
o    Ability to launch a related search with a single click if the first search does not return helpful results

AlphaSearch will be the library’s most comprehensive search tool to date, said Combs.

Contact : Jody Combs, (615)343-1229   
joseph.d.combs@vanderbilt.edu.

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