Non-free metasearches Re: [WEB4LIB] Re: [Fwd: Google, libraries, and privacy]

[Jennifer A. Heise]

>I know we don't like to think in
>those terms because we're librarians, but that is how it is. To answer a
>question asked elsewhere (on the blog, It's All Good), no, Schoogle is not
>all good. I'm not ready to call it a Tool of Satan, but to the extent that
>stakeholders may see cheap'n'easy answers to far more nuanced questions (how
>do we provide databases to users? Point them at Schoogle!), our antennae
>should be wriggling. 
>
>  
>
Seems to me that the librarian mailing list community has a pretty good 
hold on the Google Scholar As Competition To Our Services. And it's 
definitely considered in major competition to our academic database 
resources.

What I find interesting is that other multisearch databases that we pay 
for-- such as ELSEVIER SCIENCE DIRECT don't seem to be subject to the 
same level of scrutiny. Our librarians are enabling and encouraging our 
faculty in doing gonzo searching in massive ejournal collections without 
reasonable subject searching or nuanced  questions... and the database 
encourages our faculty, grad students, etc. to demand extortionate 
journal subscriptions.

Do we need to address the gonzo search directly? And if so, shouldn't we 
address the one that costs us money first?

-- Jenne Heise