[WEB4LIB] RE: Chronicle article: Google Unveils a Search Engine Focused on Scholarly Materials

[Sloan, Bernie]

Karen Schneider said:

"I thought it was interesting that the Chronicle reporter used the term
'navel gazing' rather than 'ego surfing.'"

I also thought it was an odd term to use in that context. But to me it
looked like he was quoting someone.

Anyway, in this context I kinda like the term "citation autobiography".
:-) 

It was coined by Thomas Nissonger to describe the process of searching
for references to articles/papers written by the searcher. 

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of K.G. Schneider
Sent: Friday, November 19, 2004 9:11 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] RE: Chronicle article: Google Unveils a Search Engine
Focused on Scholarly Materials

The researcher they interviewed said, "With a good ranking algorithm,
the
need for limiting is less significant than it used to be. ...It is if
the
ranking is not good that I have to increasingly refine my search until I
get
exactly what I want."

I'm mulling over that, search-wise, and I don't disagree with it in
general
(and Google is aiming for "in general"), but there are some specialized
searches that come to mind that this doesn't address. For just one
example,
a scholar may be looking for major news articles for a particular date
in
history, to give background and context to a historical piece. You can
do
that in the NY Times database (although I wish it could be filtered
better).


This made me wonder in a big-picture way if we should let other people
fuss
with aggregating data and put our emphasis on pushing specialized search
interfaces. 

I thought it was interesting that the Chronicle reporter used the term
"navel gazing" rather than "ego surfing." 

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at bluehighways.com