Precisely my point...

Knowledge Nodes in Organizations: Academic Search with Google Scholar

The University of Adelaide

Library news: Google Scholar

Good for a start

Oberlin College Library - Google Scholar vs. Library Databases

Google Scholar - Georgia State University Library

Using Google Scholar at GSU Library

A first look at Google Scholar: What's included and what's not

I think Penn has done a great job of laying this out for students and faculty.

A piece on OAI and Scholar

The Open Archive Initiative (OAI) and Google Scholar

There has been some disagreement about the merits of Google Scholar. Whatever your position on this, it iscertain that the actual workings of Google Scholar are still thesubject of speculation. What follows is not an unpicking of GoogleScholar's innards but an exercise in trend watching. I think I might have spotted a trend in the act of tipping!

[Thanks Paul!]

Creator of Google Scholar Answers a Few Questions

Over at ResourceShelf.

From The Michigan Daily

The Michigan Daily - Google unveils new search engine for academic research

Containing only published material, Google Scholar has the potential to develop into a one-stop source for students who do not want to visit the library or navigate its website when researching for classes. TerHaar, however, does not anticipate Google Scholar will pose any more of a problem than the original Google search engine, explaining that most college students are smart about using the Internet to conduct research.

Eeeeeevil.

Someone please snap a photo of the judge laughing this out of court. ACS Takes Legal Action Against Google

[Update] Gary has posted the complaint. (Thanks Gary!)

Quantum Sufficit

It strikes me that most of the harshest criticism of Google Scholar focuses on things that aren't all that important to Jo(e) Undergraduate. Critics seem, for the most part to be ignoring the propensity for satisficing.

A simple search yields applicable results, many of which (if you are on campus) are available in full-text. Is the search exhaustive? No. Are these the best books/articles for this topic? Maybe. Are there better ways/tools to execute the search? Absolutely.

But anyone who has worked a reference desk in the last few years probably knows that it might not matter.

As promised...

Reference Reviews - Peter's Digital Reference Shelf - December

In the universal, ritualistic adulation, it was no surprise that Google's latest service received publicity that was as wide as it was shallow. The blogorrhea and avalanche of e-mail was as if a free, magical cure for cancer had been announced by the National Institutes of Health. I like and use Google a lot, but not with the "nothing-but-Google" zealotry of its fans.

I want to party with Peter Jacso.

Google Scholar Documentation and Large PDF Files

It's been known for some time that Google only indexes large files up to a certain point. Gary goes into this with regard to Google Scolar.

Google Scholar and patent infringement

...with regard to CiteSeer.

The economics of Scholar from a publishers perspective

Alan Meckler: Google Scholar Is The Start of Something Big!:

"I see the Google Scholar program announced today as an inexpensive means for scholars and scientists to make sure that their papers and articles are distributed inexpensively and throrougly. Efforts at electronic distribution have failed over the years because of the difficulty of making sure that these materials are easily findable and then readable."

More from the college newspapers...

Columbia Spectator Online - So You Want to Google Your Thesis?

Rahul Krishnan, CC ’08, has used the new service, and said that the citation-based ranking system makes Google Scholar “a more scholarly way” of searching than using CLIO or LibraryWeb. “The results I’ve come up with seem really good,” he said. “It’s like any other databases that are there on Columbia’s Web site, but it brings [results] all together. I think that in the future I’ll be using that a lot.”

Getting the word out (to distance students)...

Frequently Answered Questions: Google Scholar

Getting the word out...

I'm beginning to get some responses to my call for ways in which colleges and universities are informing faculty, staff and students about Scholar, so keep them coming as I'm sure we'll all benefit by seeing what other folks are doing.

Radford University is using their Brown Bags @ Library to hold a session concerning Scholar. (Thanks Candice!)