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An interesting start to a more detailed analysis of Google Scholar ...
<br>
I am sure we will be performing more widespread tests of this powerful
but nebulous tool in the near future.<br>
David<br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 12:47:15
-0500<br>
From: bhattjj@drexel.edu<br>
Subject: SLA-ENG: Google Scholar/Library Instruction related concerns -
engineering<br>
perspectives<br>
To: SLA-ENG@iee.org.uk<br>
Reply-To: bhattjj@drexel.edu<br><br>
<br>
Hi all, <br><br>
There are five areas that the present version of Google Scholar does not
cover: <br><br>
1. It does not index online electronic books and handbooks such as those
from engnetbase,<br>
neurosciencenetbase, environetbase, infosecuritynetbase,
materialsnetbase, and knovel, etc. <br>
It becomes even more important to educate our students especially those
working on Freshman and Senior Design Projects, to use electronic books
and the books available in print when they need to develop sufficient
background in their project areas before using Google Scholar. We want
them not to carried away by Google Scholar so much that they ignore other
important resources. Especially for design projects, scholarly interature
is just a component of their research; not the only component.<br><br>
2. Conference papers indexed in Ei village (engineering village) appears
toe not yet available in Google Scholar.<br>
I did a search for 'Biomaterials' limiting to onlyconference articles in
Engineering Village2. I found 507 articles in Engineering Village. I
tried a few in Google Scholar but could not find.<br><br>
3. We may not be able to download citations to Refworks to create<br>
your bibliography. Students will need to add them manually if they want
to add them in Refworks.This will be time consuming.<br><br>
4. Advanced features such as searching within just Abstract rather<br>
than Full Text may not be available. Limiting search using advanced
features avilable tends to increase relevancy of articles. <br><br>
5. Google Scholar does not provide what is being covered, what<br>
journals are indexed, what other databases are covered, so just<br>
relying on Google Scholar may not be helpful.<br><br>
6. Searching online codes (MAD CAD) is not available in Google Scholar.
MAD CAD is very heavily used by our Senior Design students.
<a href="http://www.madcad.com/">http://www.madcad.com</a><br><br>
"Subscription based MAD-CAD contains the building codes and
knowledge based solutions and guidelines to meet the codes. MAD-CAD
provides access to a comprehensive cross-referenced collection of
building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, fire, maintenance codes from
BOCA, SBCCI, ICBO, ICC, and NFPA; and state and local codes. This
comprehensive set of codes in conjunction with the search engine and
organizational tools provide an intelligent and efficient system for
architectural, engineering and educational solutions.".<br><br>
<br>
7. Computer Science/IST - Books24x7, Safari, Lecture Notes in Computer
Science - are important not yet available in Google Scholar. As the name
implies ('Scholar'), they will not be available in future, too.<br><br>
8. One can not browse among diiferent volumes/issues of a particular
journal.<br><br>
No doubt Google Scholar appears to be a great product, but we need to
consider<br>
these limitations and promote them during our classes so that students
will try to use other resources and simply not carried away by Google
Scholar. I <b>do like</b> <b>Google Scholar</b> but I wanted to bring
these issues. Lastly, there is a human component that Google Scholar can
not provide. <br>
<br>
Recently, I had our meeting with Freshman engineering faculty members to
discuss planning for our Freshman engineering library sessions during the
winter term.. I am including some important points that we discussed from
the instructional perspectives.<br><br>
"They liked our ideas of the multidisciplinary subject headings to
address searching for biomedical engineering related information in
several databases. Based on our discussion during the meeting, we are
going to develop a one page hand out on examples of citations from
variety of sources (one from handbook, one from a library book found
using the catalog (print), one from encyclopdedia, one from website, one
from journal article, and one from conference proceedings). This page
will be used as a reference for students as they develop their
bibliography. <br><br>
Discussion on Refworks was extremely well received. Infact, they all
loved it. One faculty member suggested that we point out during the class
that last year some students received poor grades because they did
not<br>
co-ordinate well with their team members. Collaborating using Refworks in
building a 'Group Bibliography' with each member of the team
contributing, will be one way to improve co-ordination and<br>
co-operation among others. This suggestion was applauded by all faculty
members present including us.<br><br>
They are going to ask their students to follow the sample reference page
and write their bibliography in that style. Either APA or MLA style
will be used but students can use IEEE/ASCE style in Refworks.<br>
No decision has been made as yet if they are going to require students to
use one style.<br><br>
Interestingly, they all knew about Google Scholar; we argued and tried to
convince them that it is NOT the only tool and that students need to look
at other resources, ebooks, handbooks, library books, and<br>
conference papers for a complete search. They all agreed wholeheartedly.
Importance of building codes and specific material properties also came
up (google scholar will not find them). They all agreed that we spend a
few minutes in our talk to highlight our library resources, and in what
situations Google Scholar is good, when it can be used, and when library
subscribed other resources should be used. We will add one slide in our
Powerpoint to address them. Importance of library consultations by
students with librarians was again stressed by many faculty members. Two
instructors are using webCT; we will plan to link our tutorial in those
two faculty member's sections. This will be app. 8 sections out of
the 27 sections. <br><br>
Any other thoughts and ideas always welcome.<br><br>
Jay Bhatt <br>
Information Services Librarian (Engineering) <br>
Hagerty Library, Drexel University <br>
TEL 215-895-1873 <br>
FAX 215-895-2070 <br>
EMAIL bhattjj@drexel.edu <br><br>
Engineering Assistance page: <br>
<a href="http://www.library.drexel.edu/services/refengineer.html">http://www.library.drexel.edu/services/refengineer.html</a></blockquote></body>
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