On Google Scholar

Guess who's hiring?

2005-12-07T10:53:00.000-05:00

Strategic Partner Manager, Google Scholar - Mountain View Jobs in Mountain View, CA

Google's rapidly growing content partnerships organization is looking for a Strategic Partner Manager who will be responsible for maintaining and growing strategic relationships with our Google Scholar partners. These partners include the top scholarly publishers, aggregators and repositories in the US and abroad.

Let's just hope they hire someone that knows a thing or two about the humanities and social sciences...

The Infinite Library

2005-10-25T11:36:00.000-05:00

From the University of Toronto Magazine:

Within just a few months, Google Scholar has established itself as a rival to powerful multinational companies such as Thomson and Elsevier that offer huge (and, for libraries, hugely expensive) databases of scholarly material. Some librarians say that Google underperforms its rivals in the currency and quantity of its search results, while others declare that its simplicity is a huge advantage.

Who knew?

2005-10-20T13:01:00.000-05:00

Libraries search for better search engines

A lot of things are not relevant, current or unbiased when you just search online,' said Martin Kesselman, a Life Science librarian at Chang Science Library on Cook campus. 'In doing a regular Google search you're not going to find scholarly journals.' In response to this growing concern, University librarians have come up with a compromise - Google Scholar.

Emphasis mine.

Gaga over Google? Scholar in the Social Sciences

2005-10-10T08:17:00.000-05:00

Susan writes in to note that she's co-published an article in Library Hi Tech that discusses some findings re: Scholar v. Fee-based databases in the Social Sciences. Abstract available here.

Scholar Ads

2005-10-05T13:58:00.000-05:00

This ad appeared in at least one university newspaper. Was it in yours?

UPDATE: Gary weighs in with some thoughtful commentary.

Google Scholar adds scholarly dimension to Internet searches

2005-10-04T08:33:00.000-05:00

From the Wilkes University student paper

Google--an Internet destination so huge it has become a common verb in the English language (as in 'Google it'). It can also be a librarian's worst nightmare.The Internet search engine has made even obscure knowledge easily accessible from the comfort of one's own home, making it virtually unnecessary for students to venture out to the library.

Making Google Scholar Work for You: MIT Libraries

2005-09-26T10:33:00.000-05:00

MIT is doing a great job in presenting all of the issues that go along with Scholar from a students perspective.

College life, powered by Google

2005-09-14T14:51:00.000-05:00

Noted without comment.

Search by Scope

2005-09-13T13:57:00.000-05:00

Brad writes in with news that under the Advanced Search page you can now limit to particular subject areas. The categories highlight one of Scholar's lingering problems - being heavily dominated by the Natural Sciences. For example, "Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities" are all lumped under one category.

UC Library Staff Use of Google Scholar

2005-08-16T10:24:00.000-05:00

The CDL put together this fine report (pdf) based on a survey of University of California Libraries.

On June 22, 2005, the CDL requested information from the campuses about librarian and library staff use of Google Scholar in their own work and at public service desks. Eight of ten campuses responded with a wealth of information about the creative ways in which the libraries use Google Scholar, as well as with their objections to its use. Immediately below is an overall summary of responses, followed by a document containing all the detailed responses received. At the end of the second section is a report from UCLA detailing how the UCLA library integrates and positions Google Scholar along with the rest of their electronic resources.

Scholarly Web Searching: Google Scholar and Scirus

2005-08-02T13:04:00.000-05:00

Greg Notess puts them head to head...

Despite all the limitations and problems, both offer some unique reasons to use them beyond just watching their future development. For a quick, broad, multidisciplinary search on a very narrow, specific topic, either Scholar or Scirus can give a good start. For citation verification, both can help find erroneous as well as correct citation information. The Cited By links at Google Scholar can be a useful adjunct to the more comprehensive citation tracking from citation indexes via ISI's Web of Science (or can function as a partial replacement for those without access).

Librarians Point to Google Scholar

2005-07-27T09:07:00.000-05:00

From The Chronicle:

Google's search tool that focuses on academic material, called Google Scholar, is winning a prominent place in the hearts, minds, and Web sites of some librarians.

Making Scholar more prominent?

2005-07-25T10:28:00.000-05:00

Peter has noticed some interesting results in regular Google searches.

Good bye Britney Spears, hello academic journals

2005-06-24T08:35:00.000-05:00

One of the best stories about Scholar from a college paper I've seen yet.

Google Scholar is a different and more accurate way to find academically appropriate and peer-reviewed journal articles without getting all the rock star bios, sports results and blogs.

Scholar on the Home Page

2005-06-09T10:48:00.000-05:00

Brad writes in to note that Scholar now appears as a link on the Google homepage. He's not seeing it on his screen at home, so there's a possibility that Google is singling out users coming from known .edu's. (Or maybe not.)

Physicians and google Scholar

2005-06-08T11:12:00.000-05:00

Rita points everyone towards an article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal titled "Google Scholar: A source for clinicians?" The general conclusion is:

Google's launch of Scholar indicates the growing sophistication of Internet searchers. It addresses concerns about the quality of information found on the Internet and integrates previously inaccessible, high-quality commercial sites with more reliable sites available on the public Internet. Google Scholar may develop into a free, sophisticated tool, but, at least in the beta version, it is not a useful choice for clinicians.

Interesting

2005-06-06T14:10:00.000-05:00

MSU library partners with Google

Google recently approached Innovative Interfaces Inc., the longtime vendor of MSU's MAGIC catalog, in regard to setting up a pilot project to combine Innovative Interfaces software with the Google Scholar search engine, said Nancy Fleck, assistant director of technical services at the MSU library. Google Scholar is an academic search engine for scholarly literature.

I'm not sure if this is something truly innovative (natch) or just a retelling of things we already know, and that something has been lost in the translation.

Jasco on Google Scholar (Redux)

2005-06-02T08:16:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd posted this latest review of Scholar, but several of you have written in to share it with me (thanks) and as it turns out, I was thinking of something else. Peter again, puts Scholar through its' paces as no one else can, and finds several interesting deficiencies. His verdict essentially is that Scholar is not yet near the point where libraries should be dropping databases because of it.

I tend to agree, though I'm not as dismissive. I've talked to enough faculty who've said that they no longer use our databases in favor of Scholar (a practice that will likely trickle down to students) to know that they aren't really all that concerned with the bulk of the complaints raised by the detractors of Scholar. Scholar works. And it works in a way that presents very little in the way of the hoops that we make them jump through to use our library databases. As a result, I believe that (most) researchers will be very happy with tools that are "just good enough." As a librarian, I bristle at the thought. As a realist, I completely understand where they're coming from...

Scholarly journals' premier status diluted by Web

2005-05-26T08:41:00.000-05:00

Mainly about open access, but talks a bit about Scholar.

The debate comes at a time when it's easier than ever to find scholarly articles by using simple Internet tools such as Google. In late 2004, Google Inc., in Mountain View, Calif., launched Google Scholar, a free service that can search for peer-reviewed articles as well as theses, abstracts and other scholarly material, much of it in scientific fields.

Word on the street...

2005-05-19T12:43:00.000-05:00

is that Project Muse titles are now (officially?) in Scholar. (And apparently regular Google as well.) Sweet.

Library Collections Linked on Google Scholar for Free

2005-05-17T09:50:00.000-05:00

Barbara Quint weighs in on Scholar and OpenURLs. Long, but a comprehensive, worthwhile read.

Google Scholar Support for Libraries

2005-05-10T09:43:00.000-05:00

That pilot project I posted awhile back? Seems that they've rolled out Google Scholar Support for Libraries in a big way. ResourceShelf has a ton of details.

WEB4LIB Discussion on "stupid users"

2005-05-05T14:08:00.000-05:00

There's a really interesting discussion on WEB4LIB re: complex library systems vs. googlized interfaces. Scroll down till you get to "[WEB4LIB] In defense of stupid users".

Review of Google Scholar

2005-05-04T12:52:00.000-05:00

From the Charleston Advisor

While Google Scholar has made valiant attempts to include a range of resources in this category, it is apparent that coverage leans heavily on the sciences, rarely includes all the offerings even from partner publishers and misses many of the quality resources which are more usually accessible to scholars through institutional subscriptions.

(Link boosted from Open Access News)

Yup.

2005-04-25T10:29:00.000-05:00

Data Obsessed - Confession time

I have a confession to make, one that should make me horribly ashamed as a librarian if some others in the field are to be believed...

...My favorite source for scholarly articles is Google Scholar....

...But mostly I love it because I can almost always find what I’m looking for.

Google Scholar @ UNC

2005-04-25T10:26:00.000-05:00

UNC library adds Google Scholar to their homepage.

By searching Google Scholar from the Library's home page you will automatically have access, on and off campus, to many of those articles already paid for by the Library. When you are searching off-campus your search will be redirected to a page where you can enter your PID or other authentication information and the system will recognize your UNC affiliation.

Google Scholar vs Native Search -Updated

2005-04-19T17:20:00.000-05:00

Peter Jacso has created a new "polysearch" engine that looks at Google Scholar vs Native Search.

Preliminary tests have shown that Google Scholar often retrieves far fewer unique items than the native search engines of the publishers. On the positive side, Google Scholar links to citing references if the document was cited by journals indexed in Google Scholar, and provides the immensely useful citedness score of the documents. When Google Scholar has more 'hits' for a query, they often turn out to be duplicates and triplicates (not always displayed adjacently) with a separate hit for the TOC entry, the abstract, the PDF file and (if available) the HTML file. Although their URLs are slightly different, they take you to the same spot in the archive. These are redundant and confusing, well illustrated when searching the IoP archive in the collection above.

(Link boosted from LISNews.)

UPDATE: Anurag "Mr. Google Scholar" Acharya sent along an email to note a caveat or two about the side by side analysis, and has graciously agreed to let me reprint his thoughts here:

Just saw the note re: the comparison to Native search. This particular implementation assumes that papers from a publisher are available on a specific web site (eg, arjournals.annualreviews.org for Annual Reviews and interscience.wiley.com for Wiley). This is often not the case. Eg: for Annual Reviews, papers can be found on many hosts in the annualreviews.org domain, for Wiley, papers can be found on doi.wiley.com. As a result, the comparisons can be quite misleading. The simplest way to see this for yourself is to select Annual Reviews (I mention this since it is the easiest) and do any query. In the Google Scholar search box, replace site:arjournals.annualreviews.org by site:annualreviews.org. And then compare. Here are some queries that I tried:

yrast
"brownian motion"
"prion protein"

Pick your own.

On his advice, I did several test searches that reran the Scholar searches in Annual Reviews by lopping off the arjournals prefix and lo and behold, a lot more results start showing up. Still not match for match, but much better than the side-by-side analysis would have you believe. Fascinating.

ATLA vs. Google Scholar

2005-04-18T09:42:00.000-05:00

NT Gateway Weblog has an interesting post about using Scholar to search for religion literature.

The shortcomings of ATLA are clear -- not bang up to date, not free etc. -- but it does win over Google Scholar, at least for the time being, even though the latter has certain quirky pluses. I wonder for how long? It's something we'll definitely be returning to.

Library Journal - Google Scholar Links with Libs.

2005-04-15T13:21:00.000-05:00

More on the use of link resolvers to integrate universities/colleges and Scholar.

Since February, some 28 libraries, mainly at U.S. universities, have been testing institutional access in a pilot project, using the link resolver product each has purchased. If a user is working at a computer in the library, the access information comes up automatically; if not, the user must set specific preferences when using Google Scholar.

Scientific impact quantity and quality: Analysis of two sources of bibliographic data

2005-04-12T14:24:00.000-05:00

I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day about what would happen if Google used some of their newly acquired cash reserves to purchase Thompson/ISI and their Web of Knowledge citation database and added those citations to Scholar.

I can't begin to fully understand this analysis from a professor at UC San Diego, but it seems that it might not even be necessary.

Until recently, Thompson/ISI has provided the only
source of large-scale “inverted” bibliographic data of the sort
required for impact analysis. In the end of 2004, Google intro-
duced a new service, GoogleScholar, making much of this same
data available. Here we analyze 203 publications, collectively
cited by more than 4000 other publications. We show surpris-
ingly good agreement between data citation counts provided by
the two services. Data quality across the systems is analyzed,
and potentially useful complementarities between are considered.
The additional robustness offered by multiple sources of such
data promises to increase the utility of these measurements as
open citation protocols and open access increase their impact on
electronic scientific publication practices.

Inside Higher Ed :: Google: Friend or Foe?

2005-04-12T14:17:00.000-05:00

A pretty good wrap-up of one of the sessions held at ACRL. (Note how awesome web-based journalism is in the comments below the article. A commenter calls out one of the panelists and the panelists answers back. Rad.)

Some thoughts on ACRL - Long

2005-04-11T14:28:00.000-05:00

Note: These are rough impressions and not well-formed, but if I don’t get them out now, I’ll never get around to it. They’re also as I heard them, as opposed to what was actually said. In no way were these the overriding themes of the conference, in fact most of these were decidedly in the minority and at best 50/50. Also, I should have hunted down some links for alot of what I say, but I'm to burned out form the conference to do so. Sorry. If you make it to the end, I’m sure it will seem like it wasn’t a worthwhile conference, while quite the opposite is true.

The Information Literacy pendulum is swinging.
For the first time since I’ve been listening to people talk about the topic of Information Literacy, I heard more negative than good. The backlash seems to be on two fronts.

The first I’ll call Information Literacy Fatigue Syndrome. Those suffering from ILFS often start sentences with “If I hear one more word about Information Literacy, I’ll scream/die/leave/quit….” I’m finally getting the sense that a larger proportion of the library population is beginning to take a position that I’ve longly held. Namely that Information Literacy is a last-ditch effort by librarians to retain some relevance in the face of continued marginalization. We’ve slapped a new, exciting name on something we’ve done for years and tried to get everyone to believe that the world will end without it. Unfortunately, not many people (especially students) are listening, or even care. (Though I should note a conversation about some states enacting Information Literacy competencies for state institutions.) And now, having realized that this sacred cow has no clothes, many librarians are beginning to say so.

The second, and more interesting, front is centered around the idea that Information Literacy is actually a dangerous thing. We’ve put all our eggs in the IL basket, and turned everything in the library into a teachable moment. Unfortunately, a number of studies have shown that users aren’t interested. They want convenience, we want to put them through hazing. (“I learned how to build exceptionally large search queries based on arcane controlled vocabularies and I’ll be damned if I’m going to show/build you an engine that does most of that stuff for you.”) And so in an All Info Lit All the Time model, when students turn up at the desk not being able to locate the books, we call several meetings about ways to infuse LC Classification into our classes and paper the campus about an upcoming emergency book-finding workshop (that no one attends), instead of heading to the stacks to see if the signs make any sense.

Our focus on teaching is blinding us to other, more convenient, solutions for patron woes.

Reference (as we know it) is dead.
Faced with increased demands for staff time for tertiary projects and decreasing numbers of reference questions, several schools have moved to the Brandeis model, or something like it. They've abandend the desk for good. What are those librarians doing with their newfound freedom? Creating second generation web-based subject guides and promoting individual research consultations, for one.

“The war is over. Google won.”
That’s an exact quote from a speaker on one of the more popular panel discussions. Faced with the dangerous jungle of indexes and databases that we present to patrons is it any wonder that they’ve latched on to sources that are “good enough”? One box, many results, most of them relevant. Works for me. But not everyone of course. This one here is a 50/50 issue. Half the room wishing our vendors would create more Google-like interfaces (and embrace some standards so that we might create one comprehensive box) and the other half (a fairly self-important bunch in my opinion) that seem to be evangelizing search. These are the fighting against marginalization folks. The ones who say that learning how to search is of utmost importance, when in reality (at least in the minds of students and faculty) the utmost importance is what you do after the search (analyze and synthesize).

Again, studies show that most users have no desire to learn about Booleans and controlled vocabularies, they want relevant articles and they want them now. (Anyone who has stood in front of a bunch of 18 year olds and showed them how to jump through the hoops of determining whether they have access to an article or not can tell you all about that.) Yet here we stand from on high extolling the virtues of truncation, when all we really need to do is gather together to send an ultimatum to vendors – add automatic stemming or we’re never buying another product from you. Ever.

Would it be great if every undergraduate could build a kick ass nested search? You bet. Is it imperative? Not even close.

Some notes on the conference itself
Faculty status for librarians makes for an incredibly over-bloated and often uninteresting conference. I’ve noticed this at nearly every conference I’ve attended. The publish or perish crowd will write and present about everything and anything. In great detail. I’d like to see the program for a non-faculty status conference. I reckon it’d be lean and mean.

Given the number of issues concerning academic libraries today, I’d be willing to bet that you and I could come up with a list of oh say, about 2000 topics that would have been more appropriate for a keynote luncheon than “Mystery Writers”. What were they thinking?

50 poster sessions plus 50 square feet of exhibit space plus thousands of attendees equals something resembling a veal fattening pen. Next time, how about we ask a few vendors (gasp!) to stay home so that we can actually have some room to see what our colleagues have to say?

No live network connections at the podiums? What? One mic to share amongst four presenters? What?

Serials Librarian: Key Issues - Google Scholar

2005-04-05T16:54:00.000-05:00

OGS friend Brad Spry writes in to say that he's been published. Congrats! (The article is fab by the way.)

Nice!

2005-04-04T11:56:00.000-05:00

Another Google Scholar Blog.

ACRL?

2005-04-04T09:19:00.000-05:00

I'll be at ACRL starting Thursday. Drop me a line if you want to chill.

Google Academic

2005-04-01T12:21:00.000-05:00

Two years ago Brad Spry tried to punk the library world with information regarding something called Google Academic. Scarily prescient, that. (Note that the entry below that one jokes about Google buying Blogger...)

The excitement of Google Scholar, the worry of Google Print

2005-03-22T18:05:00.000-05:00

Biomedical Digital Libraries

In late 2004 Google announced two major projects, the unveiling of Google Scholar and a major expansion of the Google Print digitization program. Both projects have generated discussion within the library and research communities, and Google Print has received significant media attention. This commentary describes exciting educational possibilities stimulated by Google Scholar, and argues for caution regarding the Google Print project.

Full-text PDF available in the left-hand column.

Metasearch v. Google

2005-03-21T12:49:00.000-05:00

Lorcan Dempsey's most excellent analysis.

Libraries struggle because they manage a resource which is fragmented and 'off-web'. It is fragmented by user interface, by title, by subject division, by vocabulary. It is a resource very much organised by publisher interest, rather than by user need, and the user may struggle to know which databases are of potential value. By off-web, I mean that a resource hides its content behind its user interface and is not available to open web approaches. Increasingly, to be on-web is to be available in Google or other open web approaches.

Scholar Monitor

2005-03-17T10:13:00.000-05:00

Scholar plus Gmail plus Firefox =

Have you ever wanted to monitor research papers of particular authors, research groups, or research areas? If you have, Scholar Monitor is what you want.

Google Pushing Scholar on Google University Searches

2005-03-16T09:41:00.000-05:00

Multiple people have written in (thanks!) to note that text ads for Scholar are appearing at the bottom of the bottom of the results screen for Google's University Search. Which was supposed to be ad-free.

IngentaConnect tools to integrate with Google Scholar and Firefox

2005-03-11T13:29:00.000-05:00

Science Library Pad has found some interesting tools for those of you who have some or your holdings in Ingenta.

Citation blues got you down? Try Google!

2005-03-08T17:23:00.000-05:00

The UW Daily Online: One less thing to worry about

There is hope, though. Certain tricks can help alleviate the anxiety. Google Scholar is one of them. Scholar, working along the same principles of the regular Google search engine, adds its own idiot-proofing twist: it searches only academic sites and journals, eliminating the problem of questionably credible sources (Google Weblog, 11/18/04).

It goes on to mention libraries in the (ahem) last paragraph or so.

Identity Crisis

2005-03-04T09:07:00.000-05:00

Google pioneers digital libraries.

Google has also compiled a database, Google Scholar, that lets users search various universities and organizes the search results by relevance. Duke participates in Google Scholar, but it has also recently developed the Digital Production Center, a new enterprise with the goal of digitizing library collections and expanding digital content to the Duke community.

This is easily the tenth article I've read that blurs the line between Google Scholar and Google Print. I suppose it's understandable, but I reckon a Brand Manager at Google might want to get on this...

Net Generation Students and Libraries

2005-03-02T13:52:00.000-05:00

Longish article (chapter?) about the ways in which academic libraries are failing the current generation of students. A bit heavy on gross jargon as Educause writings often are (marketplace of ideas, etc.), but a fairly strong piece that speaks to some of the reasons why Google Scholar (and other disintermediaries) will someday rule the roost, if we don't get our acts together. She paints with an incredibly broad brush and I'm sure you'll find lots to disagree with, but worth the read nonetheless. (thanks Brad!)

Google gets it...

2005-02-17T09:40:00.000-05:00

Is your school providing access to Scholar through a link resolver? Make sure you get on Scholar Preferences list. I'm not sure this list will scale very well, but I reckon they'll work out a better mechanism for finding your school if you're a student/faculty/staff person. (Thanks Brad!)

Ummm... no.

2005-02-09T16:13:00.000-05:00

This is the second article from a college newspaper that melds Scholar with the scanning project.Google Scholar: New library on the web

According to the Google Web site, Google Scholar is making academic libraries, such as Stanford and Harvard, available online by scanning their entire library collection digitally.

Two good posts over at SiteLines

2005-02-08T18:32:00.000-05:00

One about how Scholar is good for libraries, and another that delves into some issues with NLM citations.

Library Journal - Google in the Academic Library

2005-02-01T17:31:00.000-05:00

Carol Tenopir weighs in from the academic perspective.

While graduate students and faculty still need the commercial systems, undergraduates may find all they want on Google Scholar, at least with regard to science and medical topics.

And this I love, from a detractor:

Karen Blakeman, director, RBA Information Services, "would like to see a list of sources" included. Her experiences with Google Scholar have been disappointing because of missing power search features: a consistent, controlled vocabulary (or even access to vocabularies that exist in NLM-PubMed records); the ability to search on fields like ISBN; and sorting by publisher, author, or dates.

How many of your students are lamenting the lack of these features?

"a Google Scholar search turned up references to..."

2005-02-01T17:26:00.000-05:00

An article from the Berkeley Daily Planet is a fairly good example of something I've seen about 5 times in the past two weeks. Google Scholar is becoming a part of the lexicon of search.

Suppose we use the folks at livejournal as an interesting cross section of internet denizens, many of whom are currently returning to school. There are about 66 mentions of Scholar thus far. Assuming librarians and faculty alike are showing this new tool to students, how many mentions do you suppose will be there a month from now?

"Users Don't Care"

2005-01-31T10:44:00.000-05:00

More people seem to share my thoughts on the future of Scholar.

Virginia Tech short course on Google Scholar

2005-01-17T13:58:00.000-05:00

FDI Spring 2005: Google Scholar: What does it mean for you?

Google Scholar eases access to library resources

2005-01-17T13:56:00.000-05:00

Google Scholar eases access to library resources.

The University of Delaware Library has announced that a new Internet service, Google Scholar, will improve access to materials in the library. Google Scholar is designed to provide seamless access to licensed databases that the library provides, as well as information about physical items in the library’s collection.

I imagine that something here has been lost in translation as this press release/article makes it appear as if the University of Delaware is offering a new service to it's patrons. I do, however, like the idea of libraries "getting out in front of this thing". By which I mean introducing faculty and students to the good and the bad re: Scholar, as opposed to having them find it on their own and thinking that it's the bees knees, without realizing all of the implications. Additionally, pointing these things out to faculty is yet another way of showing our value/knowledge to them.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who cringed a bit when they received emails from faculty directing us to Scholar, as if we'd never heard of it.

Harvard's Implementation

2005-01-17T13:48:00.000-05:00

Google Scholar (Harvard PIN required)

This restricted entry allows Harvard ID holders to access the full text of licensed resources to which Harvard subscribes.

Tidbit from ALA Midwinter

2005-01-17T12:07:00.000-05:00

Scroll down for some of the Boston discussions.

Google launches academic search

2005-01-13T08:50:00.000-05:00

There are so many things wrong with this article from UPenn, I don't know where to start.

Getting 'Scirus' About Scholarly Content

2005-01-12T16:27:00.000-05:00

Newslink puts Scirus and Scholar head-to-head.

While Google is definitely pulling in publishers for its Google Scholar initiative, Vogtlander said it is not a real competitor to Scirus. "Google is a huge brand for good reason—it’s good for general purposes, but it’s still frustrating for scholarly research." She said that there are several key factors that distinguish Scirus from general search engines and even from Google Scholar: unique content, superior indexing and classification technology, and advanced search capabilities.

OpenURL Referrer

2005-01-12T09:36:00.000-05:00

Those of you lucky enough to have a fancy OpenURL resolver and an IT department that has embraced the idea of having Firefox as an option on public computers will be interested in this:Openly's OpenURL Referrer.

UNLV Libraries: Google Scholar FAQ

2005-01-06T13:16:00.000-05:00

Well done.

UConn: Google Scholar

2005-01-06T13:15:00.000-05:00

Yes, but...

If you haven't already heard...

2005-01-04T09:18:00.000-05:00

Those advanced search features we've been waiting for? Advanced Scholar Search Tips. Get 'em while they're hot. Though apparently they may not be as hot as you think.

Precisely my point...

2004-12-23T10:24:00.000-05:00

Knowledge Nodes in Organizations: Academic Search with Google Scholar

The University of Adelaide

2004-12-23T09:26:00.000-05:00

Library news: Google Scholar

Good for a start

2004-12-22T11:02:00.000-05:00

Oberlin College Library - Google Scholar vs. Library Databases

Google Scholar - Georgia State University Library

2004-12-21T09:12:00.000-05:00

Using Google Scholar at GSU Library

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

2004-12-17T11:11:00.000-05:00

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

A piece on OAI and Scholar

2004-12-17T09:10:00.000-05:00

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

2004-12-14T22:02:00.000-05:00

Over at ResourceShelf.

From The Michigan Daily

2004-12-10T16:31:00.000-05:00

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.

2004-12-10T16:29:00.000-05:00

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

2004-12-07T14:19:00.000-05:00

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...

2004-12-06T14:59:00.000-05:00

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

2004-12-03T09:22:00.000-05:00

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

2004-12-02T16:55:00.000-05:00

...with regard to CiteSeer.

The economics of Scholar from a publishers perspective

2004-12-02T10:52:00.000-05:00

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...

2004-12-02T09:44:00.000-05:00

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)...

2004-12-01T16:04:00.000-05:00

Frequently Answered Questions: Google Scholar

Getting the word out...

2004-12-01T10:07:00.000-05:00

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!)

Some interesting behind the scenes thoughts...

2004-11-30T21:34:00.000-05:00

Lost Boy: Google Scholar

My involvement with Google goes back about nine months after they contacted us to see if we wanted to collaborate with them on an initiative to add more scholarly content to the Google indexes. Of course we jumped at the chance, this is undeniably a Good Thing (both for us and the publishers we work with).

and particularly of interest

With our content appearing in the Google indexes it's been interesting to watch the referral traffic increase very nicely. Now that Google Scholar has launched the referrals from the new site similarly jump into life; they must already have attracted a large user base, which isn't that surprising.

Very interesting to hear about a major provider going through a good deal of work - cleaning up of URL syntax, allowing access - just to be sure that they aren't on the losing end of the if you ain't in it, you're gonna be out of it juggernaut.

[UPDATE: Danny Sullivan goes into some of this in much greater detail.]

Getting the word out...

2004-11-30T18:24:00.000-05:00

I'd like to start tracking how and what (academic) libraries are communicating to students and faculty inre: Google Scholar. (see: WU Libraries Biology Library News 11/04 as an example.) If your library is using the web to let your campus know about this new tool, please send an email to tsondermann (at) gmail dot com. Thanks.

OpenURL Proof of Concept via Firefox

2004-11-30T17:09:00.000-05:00

Google Scholar OpenURLs - Firefox Extension

The purpose is to enable users at an institution that has an OpenURL link-resolver to use that resolver to locate the full text of articles found in Google Scholar, instead of relying on the links to publishers' websites provided by Google. This is important because it solves the "appropriate copy problem": the link to a publisher's site is useless if you don't have a subscription that lets you into that site, and your library may provide access to the same article in an aggregator's package or elsewhere.

Things still left to do...

2004-11-29T14:37:00.000-05:00

STLQ: Google Scholar - Commentary by Jay Bhatt

I think that it is important to note that this newfangled thing is only two weeks old. What will it be like when it matures?

Amazon gets into the citation business...

2004-11-24T15:19:00.000-05:00

Amazon.com: Books: Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web

Google Scholar and The Furry Unleashed

2004-11-24T11:15:00.000-05:00

A students point of view. [VIA web4lib]

Recently, Google Scholar was unveiled, followed by numerous blog posts about it. The majority of the ones I read were positive and loved the idea, outside of some library related ones. There seemed to be some worry that it destroyed the possibility for federated search at a library. Here is a summary of my opinions.

Google Scholar vs Native Search

2004-11-24T10:18:00.000-05:00

Peter Jacso (easily the best database reviewer out there) has created a tool that lets you look at Scholar and other "native engines" side-by-side. He'll have some must read commentary in the December issue of Peter's Digital Reference Shelf [VIA Resourceshelf]

TouchGraph browser for Google Scholar

2004-11-24T09:20:00.000-05:00

Alf at Hublog has created a TouchGraph implementation for Google Scholar.

(You should also check out HubMed if you haven't done so already. It's an experimental/innovative/elegant interface to PubMed that is worth checking out for the RSS queries alone.)

[thanks Paul.]

Not entirely user-friendly...

2004-11-23T15:08:00.000-05:00

password
Originally uploaded by tsondermann.

Micropayments

2004-11-23T14:51:00.000-05:00

I wonder if, after the publishers find that many new people are finding their abstracts but not shelling out the bucks to purchase them* ($38.48?) the economics of publishing in the schoogle era will lead them to adopt some sort of micropayment system?

*Never mind the fact that they won't check the library.

Googlejuice as tenure tool?

2004-11-23T14:29:00.000-05:00

An interesting analysis.

Proxy works

2004-11-23T13:57:00.000-05:00

Paul notes that he has proxy access set up at his school, and that the library at Cambridge University has Google Scholar front and center. Thanks Paul!

Google Scholar Local

2004-11-23T13:07:00.000-05:00

A more cogent view of what I was talking about earlier. With screenshots!

Bibliographic Management

2004-11-23T11:53:00.000-05:00

How far away are we from Google announcing a web-based, Refworks style citation manager? 6 months? A year? Heck, they should just buy Refworks...

The Scientist - Google Scholar welcomed

2004-11-23T10:46:00.000-05:00

A nice overview that gets some input from a few different camps. Most interesting is the idea of flagging open access vs. pay-per-view articles.

"A PloS spokeswoman added: 'Google will find that they can better serve their searchers' needs for access to complete scholarly articles by 'flagging' as open access or ranking more highly those that are freely available online. Such a system would minimize people's frustration at finding an article that looks perfect for their research needs but discovering that they are unable to access it. This frustration is already quite evident in the various threaded discussions occurring online.'"

The problem with this, of course, is that many scholars are going to be using this on-campus, wherein they'll enjoy an additional layer of ip-based subscription access. The real solution will be some sort of localized version tied in to an OpenURL system. Assuming publishers can get their DOI acts toegther.

Harvard Crimson on Google Scholar

2004-11-23T10:03:00.000-05:00

The Harvard Crimson weighs in and even manages to get a librarian's point of view (gasp!).

“I don’t think it will replace the resources available in the library,” LaGuardia said. “It’s still got a long way to go, but there’s promise.”

(BTW, if you ever have a chance to see Cheryl LaGuardia speak, I recommend that you do so.) [via Open Access News]

BioMed Central search plugin for Firefox

2004-11-23T09:56:00.000-05:00

If you haven't yet used Firefox I implore you to do so. There are a host of reasons why, and here's another: BMC search plugin for Firefox.

Your chocolate and my peanut butter...

2004-11-22T16:09:00.000-05:00

How long until Google attempts to acquire FindArticles?

Wonky WorldCat results

2004-11-22T14:58:00.000-05:00

One of the problems I've noticed with some of the Open WorldCat records that are turning up in Scholar is that some amount of FRBR-like de-duping is taking place. Unfortunately, the copy that is floating to the top in many instances is the Audiobook.

For example, a search in WorldCat for the book Moneyball reveals 5 print editions (two of which are foreign language, one of which is a large print edition and the other two ~~seem to my (non-cataloger) eyes to be bad authority work~~ are the hardcover and paperback editions) and 5 audio versions (an Audible record, two cassettes and two cd's - ~~more~~ bad authority work(?)).

A Google Scholar search returns one record. But it happens to go directly to one of the Books on Tape records. I wonder how many people are using the request feature without paying very much attention and being a bit surprised when they are handed a cd from the Circ. Desk.

Bookmarlets

2004-11-22T14:43:00.000-05:00

I reckon that within a few weeks we'll have all sorts clever folks creating interesting ways to interact with Google Scholar. To kick things off, Paul at The Distant Librarian has created some bookmarklets, and the nice people over at Ingenta have created some interesting ones as well.

Hi.

2004-11-22T14:30:00.000-05:00

So. I think we'd all agree that what happened on on November 18, 2004 will have a profound impact on the world of scholarly research. Both within the world of libraries and (perhaps more importantly) outside of it. What I'd like to do with this blog is have it serve as a repository for all things Google Scholar.

If you think you've got something to bring to the mix, shoot me an email tsondermann (at) gmail and I'd be happy to set you up with posting privileges. I'd also be interested in seeing your tips, tricks and any news you might come across.

To begin. A (not nearly complete) collection of initial reactions from around the web.

Gary and Shirl's analysis at ResourceShelf

NY Times (registration required (bugmenot

Danny Sullivan weighs in at SearchEngineWatch

Rita Vine at ResourceShelf

MetaFilter discussion

Slashdot gets into it

Traffick

Barbara Quint

Karen Schneider at Free Range

Art Rhyno

Tara at ResearchBuzz

More form Rita at SiteLines

Digital Librarian

That ought to do for a bit.