Lisa Norberg & Tim Shearer are my new favorite people. They told me today that the library has implemented a Google Scholar search box on the library’s main page. Here’s the announcement.
Tim tells me that this search box is connected to EZproxy, so if I’m off campus & do a search I’ll be forced through the proxy login. Logical, yet a very nice piece of functionality.
But it gets better. If I understand correctly, Serials Solutions is now feeding data from their OpenURL link resolver for UNC’s records to Google Scholar. Some day soon (maybe early May says Tim) UNC will show up as a checkbox in Google Scholar’s Preferences, and when that happens you’ll be able to do a search in Google Scholar & it will provide a link to UNC’s OPAC. (The closest library currently is Duke.)
Ok, yes, Google Scholar isn’t a panacea. Yes, we need to teach students to search other sources as well. But I’m really really impressed by how well the library has harnessed the power of Google. I’m a big fan of lightweight functionality: make use of an interface that people are already using, but enable them to use to better. (This is why I switched over to Firefox & have never looked back.)
My hat’s off to Tim & Lisa.
1 Comment
Trish
I totally agree, and it’s one of my constant frustrations that so many academic libraries are loath to move forward and use these new technologies like Google Scholar that could provide such an advance in functionality for searchers, particularly the undergraduate variety. This idea will catch on eventually, but it will probably be the usual 5-10 year lag period if there’s no one forcing the technological change in libraries. This happens far too often.
Any advice for giving reluctant librarians a kick in the technological butt?