MetaCat - A Meta Search System for Taiwanese Libraries

• Main Authors: Hou-Ieong Ho, 何浩洋
• Other Authors: Jieh Hsiang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/91419419147014790733

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 資訊工程學研究所 === 92 === Webpac (Web Patron Access Catalog) is the most common tool in modern libraries for users to find books. In order to find a book from different libraries, however, he needs to access different webpacs and be familiar with different interfaces. To make books from different libraries more useful to more users, it is desirable to build a uniform search platform with access to different catalogues. One such approach is to build a union catalog that contains the content of many catalogues. The NBINet (National Bibliographic Information Network) of Taiwan is one such example. While it can be very effective, its success depends on the goodwill and timely updates of the participating libraries. Another approach is to build a "virtual" catalog that sends run-time queries to libraries and collect the results. One such system has been built in Taiwan by the National Chung Cheng University. In this thesis we describe a new meta search system for accessing library catalogues called MetaCat. In addition to sending queries to webpacs of different universities, MetaCat also post-process query results and provide an integrated presentation of search outcome. To enhance the reusability and flexibility, MetaCat simplifies the work of writing respective program to handle different webpac system into writing XML configurations. This makes both system management and scalability much easier.