Google Introduces New Research Tool
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) -- Online search engine
leader Google Inc. is setting out make better sense of
all the scholarly work stored on the Web.
The company's new service, unveiled late Wednesday at
http://scholar.google.com , draws upon newly developed
algorithms to list the academic research that appears
to be most relevant to a search request. Mountain
View-based Google doesn't plan to charge for the
service nor use the feature to deliver text-based ads
- the primary source of its profits.
"Google has benefited a lot from scholarly research,
so this is one way we are giving back to the scholarly
community," said Anurag Acharya, a Google engineer who
helped develop the new search tools.
Although Google already had been indexing the reams of
academic research online, the company hadn't been able
to separate the scholarly content from commercial Web
sites.
By focusing on the citations contained in academic
papers, Google also engineered its new system to
provide a list of potentially helpful material
available at libraries and other offline sources.
The scholarly search effort continues Google's effort
to probe even deeper into content available online and
offline. Last month, Google expanded a program that
invites publishers to scan their books into the search
engine's index, enabling people to peek at the
contents online before deciding whether to buy a copy.
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REVIEW
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Web Search--Google
Big News: "Google Scholar" is Born
By Shirl Kennedy and Gary Price
The world of online "scholarly" research is changing
today as Google introduces Google Scholar. This
specialized new interface -- which will NOT be linked
from Google's main search page -- will allow users to
search a treasure chest of "scholarly material."
As you've read here many times, Google is brilliant
(that is, ingenious at marketing and trying new
things), and this is yet another example of their
savvy. This is something that some other large web
engine(s) could have done years ago to help separate
themselves from other players and also provide a
useful service. No one did it. Now, others will likely
play catch-up with Google. Basically, users of Google
Scholar can, via a single search location, access
content from "scholarly" materials found on the OPEN
WEB that they've found in the Google crawl of the web.
Some basic facts:
+ In a nutshell, Google has built an algorithm that
makes a calculated guess at to *what it thinks* is a
scholarly content mined from the OPEN WEB, and then
makes it accessible via the Google Scholar interface.
+ Precisely what makes something "scholarly" enough to
be included in Google Scholar, Google will not say.
And this is not an insignificant omission. Librarians,
especially academic librarians, are *always* being
asked to provide "scholarly" material, even if
customers aren't quite sure what this means. Their
instructor told them they needed articles from
"scholarly journals," so this is precisely what they
ask for at the library. As librarians, we may try to
educate them about how "refereed publications" work,
but let's face it. What most of these folks really
want is to quickly download an appropriate article and
beat feet out of the library. And if they think they
can get what they need from Google, the odds are slim
that they will bother with library resources at all.
College students AND professors might not know that
library databases exist, but they sure know Google.
More facts:
+ Material accessible via Google Scholar can also be
in the main Google index.
+ Google Scholar results pages *will not contain
advertising* -- at least for now.
+ Some examples of material from major publishers
whose material you'll find (we know Google has been
working with many)? Google will not provide us with a
complete list, but look for content from ACM, IEEE,
and yes, Open Worldcat material from OCLC. We also
don't know precisely what is and is not available,
date ranges, etc.
* In some cases Google will be crawling and searching
the full text of an article but users will either have
to have a subscription to the content or pay for
access to an individual articles.
+ VERY COOL! For many citations, you'll find a direct
link to other articles in the Google Scholar database
that cite the article you've selected. Yes, Google
Scholar is a citation database too! This reminds me of
two specialized databases that focus on specific types
of scholarly content accessible on the open web that
have been online for many years and remain EXCELLENT
tools.
1) CiteSeer (focuses on computer science material,
info tech content)
2) SmealSearch (focuses on business material)
+ Some material, let's say from Open Worldcat, isn't
always scholarly in the way many people think of it.
For example:
++ Here are many John Grishman books.
++ Although we're honored, we don't consider this blog
to be a "scholarly" resource.
++ Academic librarians will be sad to learn that it's
impossible to limit to only "peer-reviwed" material.
+ How big is the Google Scholar database? Google isn't
saying.
As Google makes this announcement and word spreads
about a "scholarly search tool" -- ESPECIALLY in the
academic community -- we think the use of specialty
databases (the ones university libraries offer and
spend $$$ for) will drop. It's worth watching to see
if people begin paying for material located via Google
Scholar that they can get *free* from a specialty
database they may not know is available via their
public or academic library.
Might this be a golden opportunity for the library
community to tell people -- look, we have access to
this stuff and MUCH MUCH MORE? We have better ways to
search it, and you might not even have to pay for it?
Well, yeah...but if what we've seen in the past is any
indication, this is not going to happen. Maybe this
time it will be different. Bottom line: It's very
difficult to compete with the Google marketing
machine. In the meantime, we'll be extremely
interested in the response to Google Scholar from
fee-based database publishers. Some might ask, are
specialized database tools still necessary? Info pros
know they are but we sure haven't done a good job of
explaining why.
It will also be interesting to see if *any* of the
press/chatter about Google Scholar makes even a small
mention of specialized subscription databases, free
access to these via libraries, and the fact that what
Google is offering is merely the tip of the
"scholarly" info iceberg.
Is all of this yet another nail in the coffin for
library resources and maybe librarians? Too early to
tell, of course. However, we have to ask yet again,
why wasn't the library community developing this kind
of tool in 1999 and 2000? Kudos to Google for doing
so.
When big announcements come from Google and web
engines, we often get
nervous and...sometimes upset with our profession. Not
this time, however. It's just not worth it. This is
BIG news and something that should have been around
for years. It's going to be interesting what
transpires moving forward.
Finally, specialized databases are still valuable for
many types of seaching, including searching for
"scholarly material."
Why? A few examples:
+ Limit to material published by date
+ Ability to view more than 1000 results. The Google
cutoff of 1000 results is still in place with Google
Scholar.
+ Searching using a controlled vocabulary/subject
searching
+ Ability to limit by publisher affiliation
+ You can limit by author with author: but you can
only use a last name.
First names and initials are not searchable when using
author:
+ Proximity operators
+ Gobs and gobs of content, Google Scholar still
doesn't have it all
Example: While you're find John Grisham books, you
will NOT find material (both current and archived)
from MANY newspapers, trade publications, and general
interest periodicals.
+ I'm sure you can add many more examples of what's
NOT there
Again, it's one thing for the info pro to understand
all of this, it's something else for the typical
searcher. Stay tuned, this is going to be interesting.
See Also: Google Plans New Service for Scientists and
Scholars
From the article, "While the great majority of recent
scholarly papers and periodicals are indexed on the
Web, many have not been easily accessible to the
public." This is again an example of not understanding
that libraries both public, private, and, academic
have offered access to databases with this content for
many years and that they can be accessed without
having to visit the library building.
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