[WEB4LIB] Re: Welcome to the Schoogle Era

[Nina McHale]

To address Scott's first question: in all seriousness, Larry and 
Sergei.  They've said repeatedly in interviews that they're not looking 
to take over or replace libraries.  Their great interest and strength is 
in the search process, and Google Scholar will not change the fact that 
the Internet is still a puddle a mile wide and an inch deep.  They do 
search, we do content via our negotiations with vendors and our 
familiarity with the scholarly publishing process.  It's a great match.

Question 2: I agree that we can't wait for others to do this, mostly 
because of the "via" in the second to last sentence above.  We're the 
middle man here, as someone else has already noted in the thread.  Isn't 
the consensus (I generalize here, I know) simply that users turn to 
Google because it's so much easier to use than, oh, say, Factiva or any 
of the other databases that we all take great pains to organize in an 
intuitive way on our institutions' websites?  We know what our users 
want: a simple search interface and FREE FULL TEXT NOW.  And I think the 
Napster/RIAA comparison is right on; if we're not careful, we'll turn 
into the Big Bad Corporation standing between the product and the 
consumer trying to justify our own bad business practices.

Question 3: I haven't a clue.  I'll leave this to those of you with more 
library experience and wisdom. :)

Nina

-- 
Nina McHale
Reference Librarian/Web Services Coordinator
Lauinger Library
Georgetown University
Washington, DC 20057
nlm25 at georgetown.edu
202-687-6818



Scott Drone-Silvers wrote:

>So how do we start the process of reaching out to them, and where?
>
>I'm completely serious. We can't wait for others to do it for us.
>
>Basic questions - anyone have any answers?
>
>1) Who do we need to talk to at Google?
>2) Do we need to come to some consensus on what we want first, or is just
>getting someone's ear the best start?
>3) Is there a group or organization - that would provide a good entry point
>with Google?
>
>Scott Drone-Silvers
>Director of Library Services
>Lake Land College
>5001 Lake Land Blvd.
>Mattoon, IL 61938
>(217) 234-5338 / FAX (217) 234-5533
>Web Page: http://www.lakelandcollege.edu/library/
>
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