Metasearch in the Users' Context

ABSTRACT The article describes the inner workings of metasearch and makes the case that there are many opportunities to improve this technology. Metasearch can be improved by focusing on the user's search context. Examples of this are provided by the University of Rochester River Campus Libraries (UR) development of a UR metasearch interface. The benefits of identifying and addressing stakeholder interests to overcome obstacles with moving the technology forward are explored. A specific framework and a mechanism to allow automatic database selection for metasearch users are presented.