Is Google the Competition?

Carol Tenopir has a story in Library Journal that points out the big disconnect between how librarians and how academics search for information. You just gotta know that Elsevier is conducting this study to see how they can add Scirus to both lists. (Via RLG Shelflife)

When Elsevier researchers asked librarians and scientists to name the top three most reliable online services, librarians named ScienceDirect, ISI's Web of Science, and Medline -- whereas when they asked scientists the same question, the answers they got were Google, Yahoo!, and PubMed. John Regazzi, Elsevier's managing director of market development, says that researchers need more than just Search: they need data integration of both internal and external sources. They also need the ability to search scientific and business information at the same time and to use data-mining tools to help identify trends and issues. Ben Shneiderman, professor at the University of Maryland and author of "Leonardo's Laptop," suggests that organizations consider leasing the Google search engine for proprietary systems with "Google Inside," allowing the restriction of searches to what the publisher or library chooses to provide.

Posted by Tom on April 15, 2004