Westminster College Launches Griffin Search Powered by WebFeat

Giovale Library replaces previous federated system with custom WebFeat solution

Old Brookville, NY, October 28 , 2005 — Westminster College’s Giovale Library, a member of the Utah Academic Library Consortium, has launched Griffin Search, a custom-designed federated search solution powered by WebFeat. Griffin Search enables Westminster College’s students, faculty and staff to simultaneously search any or all of over 80 electronic resources offered by the library – including the library’s catalog. Griffin Search replaces the library’s previous locally-provided federated search product.

"We had used a different federated search product previously and due to that we had acquired a lot of experience with these kinds of systems," said Jennifer Foy, Systems Librarian at Giovale Library. "During the build process, I was thoroughly impressed with the staff at WebFeat and the speed in which they were able to get our site up and running and with the quality of work they delivered."

Though custom-configured to library specifications, the entire implementation schedule for Griffin Search took just 90 days from contract signing to system launch. Foy commented, "Our Griffin Search blends seamlessly with our website and is so well designed and well integrated into our website that users have actually asked if we designed the pages and engine ourselves. This is a great compliment to WebFeat because they have taken a technology which is intrinsically complex and made it appear seamless on our website."

Foy continued, “When researching the different federated search products on the market, I ran across an article titled “The Truth About Federated Searching.” The article states that ‘federated searching is software but it is best consumed as a service’. When you treat federated searching as software, in which you host the system, it takes a tremendous amount of time and resources to simply maintain the system. System Administrators like myself want the ultimate control over the product; however, with that control comes a lot of responsibility and staff time that isn’t always planned and budgeted for when selecting a federated search partner. With WebFeat, in my opinion, you buy federated searching as a service but still retain the desired ‘control’."

"WebFeat has been very responsive to our individual needs,” commented David A. Hales, Giovale Library Director. “We are especially pleased that we are able to provide this excellent search tool without library staff having to spend hours of time doing individual programming and maintenance. We have a small staff, all of whom have multiple responsibilities, so WebFeat’s full-service approach has been the perfect fit for us. WebFeat enabled us to launch Griffin Search in a short time without draining staff resources."

To learn more about Westminster College’s implementation of Griffin Search, read our Case Study.

About Westminster College
Westminster College, founded 1875, is a private, comprehensive liberal arts college dedicated to students and their learning. The college prepares its students for success through a strong foundation of liberal education combined with cutting-edge professional programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Located where the Rocky Mountains meet the city of Salt Lake, Westminster blends classroom learning with experiences presented by its unique location to help students develop skills and attributes critical for success in a rapidly changing world. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks Westminster in the top tier of colleges and universities in the West, and Kaplan/Newsweek's America's Hottest Colleges named Westminster as one of the "367 Most Interesting Schools" in the country. For more information, visit http://www.westminstercollege.edu.

About WebFeat
WebFeat (US patent #6,807,539) is the developer of the WEBFEAT PRISM™, used by over 2,500 leading public,
academic, government and Global 1000 libraries and information centers—including over half of the top 20 largest U.S. public libraries and one out of every 10 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions.

WebFeat’s latest release, WebFeat 3, offers a suite of next-generation federated search tools, PRISM, the SMART™ COUNTER-compliant usage tracker, and MyWebFeat™ personalized federated search system. Originally founded in 1992 as an information technology consultancy, WebFeat has earned industry recognition from leading organizations such as Library Journal and the Gartner Group. Learn more about WebFeat at http://www.webfeat.org.