Jeffrey Young, Google Unveils a Search Engine Focused on Scholarly Materials, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 19, 2004 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: 'Google Scholar searches the full text of most of the documents it indexes, but in some cases the results point to articles or texts that can be seen only for a fee or with a subscription. In most such cases, users can see a free abstract of the article to decide whether they want to seek out or buy it. Some results also point to other works that cite a given article -- a useful tool for researchers. The service combines many features the company has developed in partnerships with colleges and library groups. Google officials say it builds on their work with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and 16 other universities to make scholarly papers from the institutions more accessible in search engines (The Chronicle, April 23). The new search tool also includes records from the Open WorldCat project, which makes library-catalog records available as searchable documents. That effort is a partnership of Google and OCLC Online Computer Library Center, a nonprofit library organization (The Chronicle, May 21). Google officials also would not say how they determine exactly what material counts as scholarly, or how Google Scholar decides which results are more relevant than others. But a company statement does say that it "takes into account the full text of each article as well as the article's author, the publication in which the article appeared, and how often it has been cited in scholarly literature." Such secrecy does not sit well with many librarians, who are accustomed to using databases that are carefully labeled. And some librarians worry that students will stop using library databases, journals, and books, many of which are not indexed by Google.'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/19/2004 09:38:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
