On Jul 10, 2009, at 10:55 AM, Jason Stirnaman wrote:

>> OpenPHI is a start-up company who is using open source software to
>> harvest and index open access content for the purposes of creating
>> useful indexes to medical information. For example, they have
>> collected content from MEDLINE, Biomed, and other peer-reviewed sites
>> to create a pretty comprehensive and competitive index called
>> HealthLibrarian.
>>
>> [1] http://www.openphi.com/
>> [2] http://www.healthlibrarian.net/
>
> Another interesting one is Mednar (who named this thing?) - a medical
> open access federated search engine launched by fed search veterans  
> Deep
> Web.
>
> http://mednar.com/mednar/


I think things like HealthLibrarian, Mednar, the previous work done by  
Index Data with open content, the cooperative alluded to by OCLC and  
Ebsco, and Serials Solutions Summon all represent a trend and/or  
opportunity for folks like ourselves. Identify (open access) content,  
harvest it, index it, and provide access to the index. If we were  
smart and cooperative, then we would create these indexes in some sort  
of sharable format (like a specifically structured Lucene index)  
allowing libraries to mix & match indexes to meet local needs. I will  
collect and index philosophy and theology materials. MIT will index  
computer science and mathematics. NCSU will collect engineering and  
agriculture. Etc. Once we get this process under our belts we could  
then go after the "closed" access content. By going through such a  
process we will educate ourselves, improve our skills, become more  
self-reliant, and save buckets of money in the long run. Not to  
mention provide value-added access to the materials needed by our  
patrons.

At the same time, I also understand many of us would rather pay for  
the convenience of having this index packaged for us. If not, then  
there never would have been a market of Poole's original periodical  
index.

-- 
Eric Lease Morgan
University of Notre Dame

(574) 631-8604