[Web4lib] google & library catalogs

[Sara Brownmiller]

There is interest here in allowing google (google the search engine, not
google scholar) to spider, or crawl, our library catalog.  Since many
students start their research in google, they might identify information
easily available to them.  It would also help increase exposure to
materials in our digital collections and our special collections and
manuscripts.

Has anyone allowed a search engine to crawl their catalog?  What impact
did it have on the performance?  Does your library have a policy about
search engines crawling your catalog?  What factors influenced your
decision?

I would also be very interested in locating some records in google that
came from a library catalog to see how the user is linked to the catalog
or to see how the material is identified with a specific institution.

thanks, Sara

Sara Brownmiller			University of Oregon Libraries
Director, Library Systems 		1299 University of Oregon
Women's Studies Librarian		Eugene, OR  97403-1299
					541/346-2368 (voice)
snb at uoregon.edu				541/346-3485 (fax)