Jessamyn said “learn this word: folksonomy” and I make it a point to always listen to Jessamyn. 🙂 Actually, I’ve been hearing quite a lot about folksonomies lately, between my Theory of Information Retrieval class last semester and the recent discussion on Slashdot. Folksonomies are the taxonomic vocabularies generated from such sites as del.icio.us and …
According to Gary Price at Resource Shelf, GuruNet has become Answsers.com and is now offering a ready reference search engine for free. Answers.com culls its information from a variety of free and pay sources, including Columbia Encyclopedia, Columbia University Press, Merriam Webster, Computer Desktop Encyclopedia, SparKNotes, Who2, and Wikipedia. The user submits a query and …
Barbara Quint has put together a list of questions and answers about the Google Library Project that have been pondered by various people in the library and search worlds. Some questions remain unanswered. Others, like what the Google Library Project means for brick and mortar libraries, involves answers ranging from unconcern to grudging acceptance to …
Earlier this month, I had reported on a new way to search handwritten manuscripts that was developed by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Today, the New York Times has written about this exciting development, along with the fact that the head of the project is going to brief Google on it next month. So …
This is also huge digital library news, but, with the Google frenzy, they’ve really been the victim of bad timing. International Libraries and the Internet Archive collaborate to build Open-Access Text Archives Today, a number of International libraries have committed to putting their digitized books in open-access archives, starting with one at the Internet Archive. …
I’ve been quietly reading about the Google deal with the libraries of Stanford, University of Michigan, Harvard, Oxford, and New York City, and the resultant debates/rants on various blogs. I didn’t really want to go off on a half-cocked rant of my own, so I’ve spent the last few days thinking about what Google’s digitization …
According to Slashdot, the American Chemical Society is suing Google over their use of the title Google Scholar. The American Chemical Society has a product called SciFinder Scholar, and they feel that Google Scholar infringes on their trademark. Wow, this is like Spike Lee thinking he has the sole right to the name Spike and …
Wow! I can hardly keep up with all of Google’s betas and latest acquisitions! Google Suggest seems to be their newest beta (though don’t quote me on that). It’s looks just like the usual Google search box, but as you are typing in your query, a box drops down with suggestions of what you might …
Here is an interesting article on the year in review for search engines. 2004 saw many major players (Yahoo, Google, and MSN in particular) kick their competition up a notch by trying to differentiate themselves from the pack. Will more of the same happen in 2005? Tara Calishain at Research Buzz thinks 2005 will be …
LexisNexis is now offering its articles ala carte, which allows regular folks who are not affiliated with an institution of higher learning to search LexisNexis and buy the full-text if they so choose. You have to register to search (though the search itself is free), and then any article you wish to read costs only …
If you want to read as much as you can about Google Scholar all in one place, there is now a blog devoted entirely to the subject. It’s interesting to see the mix of opinions; that it’s the death knell for libraries, that it is the greatest invention since sliced bread, that it’s the anti-christ, …
Wow, Google must be thrilled by all the free press and panic they’re getting from librarians with their brand new offering, Google Scholar. I’d put in my two cents, but I really don’t have much to add when it’s been covered by just about every blog I read. Instead, enjoy some insights on Google’s new …