Sirsi Dynix: Nudging Libraries toward Enterprise Search

June 27, 2008

Sirsi Dynix provides technology solutions to libraries. On June 25, 2008, Sirsi Dynix issued a news release that features a number of new features, including:

  • Fuzzy search technology
  • Improved search index updating
  • Support for forthcoming community/social networking capabilities.
  • such as user reviews, rankings and tagging and more in future releases.

One feature puzzled me. Sirsi Dynix asserts that it has a “search widget,” which provides a code snippet that can easily be cut and pasted in order to present an enterprise search box within existing Web pages. When I see the phrase “enterprise search” I do not think of library systems. Sirsi Dynix says that these functions will be available to users of the Sirsi Dynix online public access cataloging systems. Enterprise search systems have been, in my experience, segregated from enterprise search or behind-the-firewall search systems.

My recollection is that Sirsi Dynix uses technology from Brainware. An interview with one of Brainware’s senior managers appeared in ArnoldIT.com Search Wizards Speak series. The description of the Brainware system is interesting because Brainware’s system pivots on pattern matching. You can read the interview here.

A number of search-centric vendors are adding collaboration and social functions, which is standard operating procedure in the search business. Each new trend gets “bolted on” to the basic engine. Some vendors’ systems have become quite complex, and it is not clear how collaborative and social functions will mesh with basic search functions.

Stephen Arnold, June 27, 2008

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