I can't stand the thought of missing out on good articles because my carefully constructed search didn't catch them. I am used to giving Google a general idea of what I want and letting them present the options that are most valued through their extensive algorithm. When I do a general search in that manner through an EBSCO database...I am always disappointed at the results. I just don't tend to trust the results from a paid database. I feel like they are grandfathered in from long standing contracts with educational, public, and research libraries and have therefore become complacent in their efforts to expand and improve their product. There are few established names in the research-providing field that they don't really have to compete and can live off of name recognition alone.
I really hope Google Scholar can at least start to push them. Even being a free tool, the availability and ease of search will hopefully make them at least worry about their collective monopoly enough to push in a modern direction with their search functions. Google brings out both the best and the worst in its competition. Maybe Google Scholar will, at least indirectly, allow us to grow as a collective academic community in our ability to publish, find, and connect our ideas in this age. Every level up until you reach academia are able to share ideas openly and (relatively) "free"-ly. Why can't we?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment