ENCompass
by Mike Somers
In late December, the Library signed a letter of intent with Endeavor Information Systems to evaluate for possible purchase the ENCompass product. What is the ENCompass product? According to Endeavor’s promotional literature, ENCompass “accommodates the way today’s researchers work.”[1] In other words, this product will help the Library manage a broad range of resources—print materials, electronic journals, articles in full-text aggregator databases, and objects stored in digital formats such as sound clips, video clips and graphics—and allows users to discover this rich variety of information through a sophisticated search interface.
Technically, the ENCompass application uses Oracle 9i as its database platform and it will reside on a separate server. The product has a number of interesting features. It includes functionality for digital objects management, collection management, license and rights management as well as discovery tools and a sophisticated linking tool (LinkFinderPlus). For users, the ENCompass product is “a gateway to access information” wherever it is stored—the local OPAC, other libraries’ catalogs, abstract and indexing databases, or anywhere else. In other words, the ENCompass product is really a sophisticated search engine. When a user types in a search term or search string, the ENCompass product searches our various electronic databases, the local catalog, and all of the articles in our full-text electronic journals, digitized video clips, and other digital objects simultaneously.
In order for the Library to test this product successfully, a team has been formed and a charge written. The team includes Paul Asay, Chris Hayes, Jung-ran Park, Ralph Gabbard, Renee’ Englund, Brian Clark and David Kaunelis. The team will be responsible for learning about the administrative functions of the products, how to load and migrate data, what metadata standards will be used to describe digital objects, how the various features such as the ENCompass repository, the license management system and the “resource selection” tools work. Once the ENCompass product has been installed on our server by Endeavor staff, we will have 150 days to determine whether or not to purchase this new product.