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I've noticed that reference and instructional librarians (at least in published literature) tend to use the term "federated search" more often than others.  And by that they mean a broadcast search, not what Ray and many others mean by that term.  

Library technology folk tend to use the other terms more often.

--Dave

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David Walker
Library Web Services Manager
California State University
http://xerxes.calstate.edu
________________________________________
From: Code for Libraries [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ray Denenberg, Library of Congress [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 8:28 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Serials Solutions Summon

From: "Thomas Dowling" <[log in to unmask]>
> You can define differences between meta-, federated, and broadcast search,
> but
> every discussion on the topic will be punctuated by people asking, "Wait,
> what's the difference again?"

Leaving aside metasearch and broadcast search (terms invented more recently)
it  is a shame if "federated" has really lost its distinction
from"distributed".  Historically, a federated database is one that
integrates multiple (autonomous) databases so it is in effect a virtual
distributed database, though a single database.    I don't think that's a
hard concept and I don't think it is a trivial distinction.

--Ray