Objectives

With more Canadian librarians depositing their knowledge synthesis search data into institutional data repositories within the Canadian Dataverse, Borealis, there is a growing need to streamline access to search strategies deposited by librarians at different institutions. Currently, search functionality works best at the individual institutional level within Borealis, making it difficult to access a range of search strategies on a particular topic. We set out to create a federated search within librarian search deposits across participating institutions in Borealis.

Methods

Since manipulating the advanced search features within Borealis is limited, the authors identified Google Sites to create a canned search within Borealis for librarian-created knowledge synthesis search strategies across various institutional dataverses. The search box allows librarians to search by topic within deposited search datasets. By doing so, the authors have engineered an efficient method to identify potentially relevant search strategies deposited by Canadian librarians.

Discussion

Using or adapting knowledge synthesis searches, with appropriate credit, by other Canadian librarians is a useful way to eliminate time spent creating individual search strategies. Current Borealis functionality creates a barrier to the discovery of deposited datasets, and this canned search removes this barrier by offering one place for librarians to find potentially useful searches. By allowing librarians to easily access and adapt published search strategies from Canadian colleagues for their own knowledge synthesis projects, librarians can tap into each other’s knowledge and learn from one another.