Both the terms "federated searching" and "meta-searching" are often used 
ambiguously to refer to both of these techniques.

I've been trying to use "broadcast search" and "local index" to be clear 
about which technique I'm talking about. (I used to say 'cross-search' 
for 'broadcast search', but I think 'broadcast search' is more clear).

Jonathan

Yitzchak Schaffer wrote:
> Andrew Nagy wrote:
>   
>> Summon is really more than an NGC as we are selling it as a service - a
>> unified discovery service.  This means that it is a single repository of the
>> library's content ( subscription content, catalog records, IR data, etc.).
>> Federated search is not apart of Summon
>>     
>
> Well, if we understand "federated" to mean "bringing stuff together by 
> searching all of it at once," then it is, as opposed to "broadcast 
> searching," a term you used later in this sentence.  As in, "Origin:
> 1665–75; < L foederātus leagued together, allied, equiv. to foeder- 
> (nom. s. foedus) league" from
> http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=federated
>
> It is, though, a great *breakthrough* in the area of federated search, 
> which is why we ordered an onsite demo immediately on hearing about this 
> product.
>
> But I don't think I was clear with my question in any case; it occurs to 
> me now that my true question wasn't code-related, but seeing Summon on 
> the conf agenda prompted me to bring it up here.  Namely: has anyone 
> investigated whether the arrangements SerSol has with content vendors 
> are easily duplicable by institutions for home-baked/potential OSS products
>
>