Barbara Quint, Library Collections Linked on Google Scholar for Free, Information Today, May 16, 2005. Excerpt: 'The Google Scholar project, which launched in November 2004, has responded to the complaints of many academic and research librarians by expanding its usefulness for campus-based users. Its new institutional access feature links Google Scholar users to electronic versions --and even print versions-- of journals accessible through library collections. Any library using OpenURLs and meeting Google Scholar's conditions can join the program. Authorization of "appropriate copy" to individual library patrons, "on-campus or off," remains the library's electronic responsibility. Unlike many commercial information services, Google offers the institutional link resolving at its usual attractive rate --free. Within days of the announcement, a reported 150 libraries had joined....John McDonald, acquisitions librarian at the California Institute of Technology's library, a member of the pilot project, said that any library already using a link resolver would probably find connecting to Google Scholar easy. McDonald pointed out that a study had shown that the restricted (DOI/PMID only) linking previously offered in Google Scholar only reached a third of its citations. Under the new institutional access, almost all of the journal titles would be reached. However, he did point out that other material in Google Scholar, e.g., conference proceedings or theses and dissertations, would still not link to library collections. Achaya also confirmed that the full text of books remained largely unavailable through Google Scholar. Not only does it have no plans to integrate Google Print holdings, even though millions of books will soon start coming online through the Google Print library project (Google-brary?), but even holdings of primary material, e.g., the massive public domain content in Project Gutenberg, are only available through the main Google search. McDonald considered the main Google service as still offering the bulk of Google Scholar’s content plus, in many cases, more material.'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/16/2005 09:58:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
