Northern Light Technology, Inc. has announced that it has teamed up
with Oslo, Norway-based Search4Science to launch an enhanced online search
service that's focused on the specific needs of scientists worldwide. Northern
Light has also announced that it joined with the University of Pennsylvania
(Penn) Library to create a portal for the university's 248,000 alumni.
Search4Science
Dynamic Search, Search4Science's patent-pending technology, now presents
search results using Northern Light's patented classification technology.
Dynamic Search encourages the user to add words to a query by presenting
appropriate synonyms as well as relevant words or concepts for limiting
the search. In addition, Dynamic Search learns from the behavior of users
by continuously updating synonyms and encouraging searchers to use terminology
contributed by others.
Northern Light further enhances the search experience by organizing
search results into labeled folders, grouped by subject, type, source,
region, and language. These Custom Search Folders guide the user to a set
of focused results and, when a specific folder is opened, a new subset
of the original search results is presented; it's limited only to the topic
of the selected folder. With only a few mouse clicks, a user can drill
down to targeted results.
According to the announcement, by combining the two technologies, the
new Dynamic Search assists the user in building a better search initially
and encourages more efficient access to targeted results from a large search
set. Over the last few months, the initial scientific database of synonyms
has grown from 50,000 to more than 235,000, all the result of user input
during searching. According to the announcement,Search4Science expects
that this evolutionary process will continue and that the quality of the
user experience will continue to improve as users suggest relevant synonyms
and limiting words.
Penn's Alumni Portal
Penn's Alumni & Friends Portal (http://www.library.upenn.edu/portal)
includes a link to content-rich Web sites organized by subject, as well
as to thousands of e-journals and e-newspapers. "Penn's librarians regularly
review new Web sites and electronic journals with the same careful approach
that they take to acquiring new books and printed journals," said Paul
Mosher, Penn's vice provost and director of libraries.
"A key element of the Friends & Alumni Portal is its link to millions
of full-text articles," said Adam Corson-Finnerty, Penn Library's external
affairs director. "That's where our partnership with Northern Light Technology
comes in. They have negotiated arrangements to supply full-text information
online for over 7,100 magazines, journals, and newspapers exactly when
you want it. We could never have negotiated such contracts on our own.
It would have been too staff-intensive and too expensive."
Source: Northern Light Technology, Inc., Cambridge, MA, 617/621-5194;
http://www.northernlight.com. |
