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"Summon Search API uses an authentication scheme based on secret key verification via an HMAC-SHA1 digest. The API performs both authentication and authorization via the same HTTP Authorization header. Creating an Authorization header for an API request requires an access ID, a paired secret key, a client key, and access to certain elements of the HTTP request being authenticated. To create the Authorization header, specific request elements must be assembled into a string that uniquely identifies the request. This ID string is then turned into a digest using the HMAC-SHA1 algorithm as defined in RFC 2104. The digest is then Base64-encoded according to RFC 2045, and assembled into a header along with the access ID. When the API server receives a request, the first thing it does is check the x-summon-date header to make sure it is within a reasonable margin of the server time. If the header time is not within one hour of the server time then authentication fails immediately. If the request timestamp is acceptable, then the server goes on to check that Summon authentication is being used in the Authorization header. If Summon authentication is being used, the server extracts the access ID, client key and encoded authentication digest from the Authorization header, and looks up the paired secret key using the access ID. Finally the server performs the same algorithm described in the previous paragraph to produce a test digest, and compares the test digest against the digest provided in the Authorization header. If the two digests are identical, the request is authenticated."

"The Web puzzle of online information resources often hinders end-users from effective and efficient access to these resources. Clustering resources into appropriate subject-based groupings may help alleviate these difficulties, but will it work with heterogeneous material? The University of Michigan and the University of California Irvine joined forces to test automatically enhancing metadata records using the Topic Modeling algorithm on the varied OAIster corpus. We created labels for the resulting clusters of metadata records, matched the clusters to an in-house classification system, and developed a prototype that would showcase methods for search and retrieval using the enhanced records. Results indicated that while the algorithm was somewhat time-intensive to run and using a local classification scheme had its drawbacks, precise clustering of records was achieved and the prototype interface proved that faceted classification could be powerful in helping end-users find resources. "

"In addition to Discovery products created by commercial companies, a number of alternatives have emerged in the open source arena. These open source products allow libraries to follow a more experimental approach in establishing their nextgeneration discovery interface strategy. Libraries can download and install the software on a test server, load sample data sets, and customize it without the need to make a major commitment or financial outlay. They can even experiment with multiple products. Theavailability of these open source products allows a library to make an initial investigation of a new generation interface and gain hands-on experience, even if they might eventually decide to purchase a commercial product. In the open source discovery interface arena, VUfind stands as the dominant product. The Mellon-funded eXtensible Catalog project has been underway for about 2 years and will soon be releasing software. Other open source discovery technologies emerging include the University of Virginia's Blacklight and OpenBib, which is an example of discovery interfaces developed internationally."

"The report covers the following: * What is federated search? * Conducting a needs assessment * Defining purchase criteria * Building your team * Industry research * Proprietary or open source? * Narrowing the field * Conducting product tests * Selecting and implementing your choice * Measuring results The following activities are included in the Federated Search Report and Tool Kit: 1. Needs Assessment 2. Create a Story About Using Federated Search 3. Staff Requirements Assessment 4. Purchase Criteria Definition 5. The Insource/Outsource Dilemma 6. Assembling Your Team 7. Product and Company Overviews 8. Product Trials 9. Analysis and Product Selection 10. Review and Evaluation "

"Vingt ans après l'observation des usages des catalogues informatisés menée par Joëlle Le Marec à la Bibliothèque publique d'information 1, les administrateurs du portail documentaire actuel, accompagnés par le service Études et recherche, ont souhaité évaluer la réception et la compréhension de cet outil par ses utilisateurs. La méthode des tests scénarisés, très utilisée en ergonomie informatique, a été retenue dans le but de recueillir des données fines concernant les difficultés et points de blocages rencontrés au cours de la consultation. Cette démarche d'évaluation, riche d'enseignement, ouvre à la BPI de nouvelles perspectives en matière de développement et d'évolution de ses interfaces de recherche."

"Cluuz.com takes results and applies semantic processes to them. Some of the company's display options are a bit too sophisticated for my 64-year-young eyes, but I found the system quite useful. (...) The system offers other ways to view the results set. For example, you can look at hits from the search engines to which the query is passed as a traditional laundry list. Other choices include a cluster display and a Flash display which is, in my opinion, cluttered with sliders, controls, and options."\n"Cluuz technology is incorporated into Sprylogics enterprise products where it provides search and disambiguation capabilities for both internal and external data. Enterprises using Cluuz technology can do a single search for all sources of information that they have access to. The results are pulled from unstructured information from within the firewall and reconciled with the results pulled from the web, thereby forming a complete intelligence picture. This capability allows users to very effectively expand their knowledge on a topic for which they already have information internally."

"It is interesting that Summon is built using an open-source product architecture - and ditching the need for a federated search back-end is quite a radical step forward into the cloud. I'm wondering if this is related to their different approach to authentication: both Summon and Metalib seem to be 'authentication agnostic' and could work with a variety of authentication systems: but ExLibris seems to prefer the 'up-front' password challenge as opposed to Serials Solutions who give you it the other way round: metadata first and only authenticate later. Is it harder to integrate authentication, as opposed to searching for content, into an institutional login this way round? I don't yet know as I think it depends what choices we make on identity management. Personally I'm drawn to the 'up-front' approach - even though the simplicity of what Serials Solutions are doing is very attractive, I prefer my password challenges at the beginning - rather than at the end of the process. What about others?"