Building a Bento Box: COCC’s Federated Search

Conference Year

Online Northwest 2019

Session

3

Type

Breakout Session

Presenters

• Tamara Marnell, Central Oregon Community College

Abstract

In 2018 Central Oregon Community College developed, tested, and launched a custom federated search interface, or "bento box" search, that queries several popular databases and displays the results by resource type. This presentation will cover COCC’s rationale for choosing the bento box model, the technology behind the tool, and the results of user testing and feedback.

Learning Outcomes

Attendees will learn about the pros and cons of federated searches versus unified discovery layers; the search APIs available from large database vendors; and usability considerations of the “bento box” model

Links

• Building a Bento Box (PDF)