Ohio University

OHIO eDirectory now connected to PeopleSoft SIS

Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Sean O'Malley  

The people search at the top of OHIO's web site may look familiar, but under the hood, it has a new engine. 

That engine bases its results on data stored in the PeopleSoft SIS, so searches return up-to-date information about all students, including those who joined the university in summer 2011 or later. The only students not included in search results are those who have requested privacy through the Office of the University Registrar. 

Employee search results continue to come from the university's Human Resources database. Employees can update their own entries in that database by visiting HR's My Personal Information web site.

According to Jay Beam, OIT's director of Web Services, the updated search uses the same technology to find people as it does to find web pages. "The two categories are integrated now," Beam said. "You can go from finding a person's contact info to finding all the web pages that mention that person with one click."

Beam notes, however, that the university's people search remains a work in progress. "We're integrated with the new SIS now, but that's just the first step," Beam said. "Next we need to consider what sorts of advanced search capabilities are appropriate and feasible."