Google Scholar
Monday, November 29, 2004
One of the benefits of my time “off-line” has been the forced sideline-watching of people’s reactions to the new Google Scholar.
Haven’t we all gotten tired of the “run search, change database, recreate search” routine? The reason for this has been that terms and structures change across databases. Which is true, but none of the search portals (Dialog, Ovid, etc.) have had the Google search engine either. I’m picturing users being able to login to a single site, do a keyword search, and be fairly confident in his/her results and their availablilty.
And isn’t it what we’ve been working for?
- Google Scholar Focuses on Research-Quality Content
In announcing the new service, Google requested all users of the beta to “Please let us know if you have suggestions, questions, or comments about Google Scholar. We recognize the debt we owe to all those in academia whose work has made Google itself a reality, and we hope to make Google Scholar as useful to this community as possible. We believe everyone should have a chance to stand on the shoulders of giants.”
- The Scientist :: Google Scholar welcomed
BioMed Central Publisher Jan Velterop said in a statement that the tool maximizes the opportunities offered by Open Access journals and open repositories.
- Late Night Thoughts on Google Scholar
some local augmentation can happen fairly easily, and I think it would be good news for both libraries and Google if these hooks can be worked out now. Libraries have long tried to hook up users with the most appropriate content in the world of recorded information, even if they get there via Google, there’s still lots of work to be done to make the access equitable. Web systems are always much more level playing fields than many observers tend to acknowledge, and I think there may be some exciting opportunities here.
- The Digital Librarian: The Google Scholar Library Re-Action
So, my soapbox is this: We need to stop be re-active, and start being proactive. Our venders are not going to move us forward in the ways we need; they are reactive to our needs, not to our future. It is very easy to be passive as a community, and to let outside forces map our route. It is much harder to take control of the wheel and do the mapping ourselves. But until we do, the “Where do we want to go today?” will continue to be the rhetorical question that is only answered by the company (or vendor community) that asks it.
- The Distant Librarian: How to make Google Scholar work for the distance students
The marketing twist - since Google Scholar knows which institution the student is affiliated with, the full access links should read, “access provided by the University of Calgary Library” or something similar so the students are well aware that this stuff isn’t really free. And of course this would also allow the Library Search bit to work as it does for the on-campus folks.
- Burningbird » A Little Puffery
when I did look up my name, I could click on a Library Link associated with my book, Practical RDF, and find out that it’s part of the stacks at St. Louis University and the University of Missouri. Which is rather cool if you think on it: the service and the fact that my book is at these two universities.From there, I can access a page that could be used to request this book, or at least do a search at that particular library. Now that is pretty damn exciting, even for a jaded tech such as myself.
You can tell by the quotes I used that I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to extend access to scholarly works where the public can find them. There are some very valid problems raise but we have to remember that it’s a beta version, which means they are actively looking for feedback on what would be useful.
So here’s my wishlist of limits:
- Availaility in one or more institutions
- Document type: book, journal article, book chapter
- Full-text availability
- Language
- Date published
Computing News — laura
