[WEB4LIB] Re: Welcome to the Schoogle Era

[Tiffini Travis]

Yes seems as if there are two schools of thought on the 
matter- the commercial user and the educational user- i 
doubt the commercial user will be searching for scholarly 
information that often and so i doubt seriously that 
google is trying to appeal to the user that doesnt have 
access to any copy- its marketing to students and so 
called scholars that are unaware of what they have access 
to..if you work in an academic library you see them come 
to the reference desk often and unfortunatley you get the 
students that pay for stuff the library already paid for. 
I totally agree with your assessment that we suck at 
marketing and this is the cause for our dilemma and why 
commercial sites have an advantage on the internet.
~T

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 09:50:08 -0800 (PST)
  "K.G. Schneider" <kgs at bluehighways.com> wrote:
> 
>> Most people don't have access to any copy, much less the 
>>"appropriate"
>> one, so giving them access to "pay-per-view" articles 
>>may be entirely
> 
> And even when they do, OFTEN when they do, they don't 
>know they have access.
> Google Scholar could steamroll right over us because so 
>few people even
> realize what we offer, because we suck at marketing. And 
>if they do realize
> it, and then they compare a single Googlized point of 
>access to the
> confusing and arcane plethora of content provided by 
>many institutions, they
> will go for the satisficing principle and do whatever's 
>easier. And since
> calling people Scholars is a lot like saying your kids 
>are smart, Google has
> the extra boost of flattering people into using their 
>product. Good name. 
> 
> Karen G. Schneider
> kgs at bluehighways.com
> 
> 
> 
>