[WEB4LIB] Re: Welcome to the Schoogle Era

[Nashaat Sayed]

Just to make sure that our library world is not divided in opinion, technological innovation is coming in many ways and Google Scholar is not a surprise. I agree with many of the peers on this list, and I also agree with many who seem to think that this type of service will affect the way the users research. It is true that novice users will jump to the Scholar to search for information, and why should they not? Is it that easy to find an article through the many databases offered by an academic/public library (often more than 100-1000's). "jerry-rigged method of e-resource brokering" (Ludwig 2004). Further this is one engine so usability is perhaps at it's greatest with Google. 
 
As you may have noticed, Google makes several statements for http://scholar.google.com/scholar/about.htm, scholarly publishers, professional societies, universities, collaborating and index the information not made available yet. Who is the spokesman for the library information and knowledge managers? Who is the caretaker for library technical innovations in U.S? Who can discuss Z39.50, OpenURL, federated searching, and the likes with Google/other representatives? Do we have one organization (NOT ALA, ACRL, LC) that can discuss this type of development with librarians on this listserv and others (SIGIA, ACAT, IFLA)? 
 
Just to make sure that our library world is not divided in opinion, this type of tool can be improved only with our (librarians) help. 
 
Nashaat Sayed
Student and Web Developer
nashaatis at yahoo.com

		
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