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NISO Metasearch Survey Draws Input from All Parts of Information Community

BETHESDA, MD - November 15, 2004 - NISO announced results of a survey of content providers and library system vendors on the current state of metasearching and their level of interest in developing standards in the metasearching arena. Conducted by NISO's Metasearch Initiative, the survey collected input from non-profit organizations, content aggregators, government, commercial and academic publishers, library management systems vendors, and consultants. The National Geographic Society, Library of Congress, R.R. Bowker, OCLC, the University of Manchester, and Columbia University Press were among the groups responding.
Key results include the following:

  • 83 percent (20 of 24) are aware of current metasearching activity on their database(s)
  • 54 percent (13 of 24) do not have a policy regarding metasearching of their offerings
  • 54 percent (13 of 24) believe that allowing metasearching of their offerings is very important to their customers
  • 86 percent (18 of 21) plan changes or enhancements to their current services
  • Of those who allow metasearching of their offerings, 70 percent think standards and guidelines in metasearching would be very important to their business

About NISO's Metasearch Initiative

The goal of NISO's Metasearch Initiative is to enable metasearch service providers to offer more effective and responsive services, content providers to deliver enhanced content and protect their intellectual property, and libraries to deliver services that distinguish their services from Google and other free web services. The Initiative includes three Task Groups - Access Management, Collection Description, and Search and Retrieval.

About NISO

NISO, a non-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes technical standards to manage information in our changing and ever-more digital environment. NISO standards apply both traditional and new technologies to the full range of information-related needs, including retrieval, re-purposing, storage, metadata, and preservation.

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