[Web4lib] Which databases can Google Scholar crawl?

[Ted Koppel]

Bill,

IF Google were to put together an 'official list' it would send a
message(or at least imply)
a couple of things:

   - that they are systematically inventorying what they add to Scholar
     (we don't know if they have the equivalent of a Cardex or if they
take 
     pains to look for and include 'missing' articles per journal) and
     that they would (implicitly) have to spend some money (overhead) to
     do a proper job of what we call 'serials control'.  

     By leaving the question open, they are likely saving some
administrative
     overhead expense.

   - that they would be making a commitment to continuing free access to
Scholar
     (suppose libraries built collection development policies based on
Scholar
     and next year Google decided to monetize its investment (i.e.
charge
     for access).  Can you imagine the outcry from the library world? 

     By keeping things murky - not committing, but by being ambiguous -
Google 
     keeps all of its business options open.

I have *no* particular inside knowledge, but it wouldn't surprise me if 
Google avoided confirming or denying their inclusion policies in order 
to keep from becoming mired in the finer points of serials 
management.
         



--------------
Bill Drew wrote:

From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Bill Drew

Noncommittal answer if I ever heard one.  How hard would it be to just
say here is a list of database providers who let us crawl their sites? 
That is a simple answer.
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