I’m currently working on earning a Master’s degree in IT. The current academic semester has introduced me to the library resources because of the research oriented courses that I am taking. My professors have done a fairly good job of introducing the students on how to use the library resources, but somehow I felt like things weren’t quite right. This posting explains it. It’s most frustrating when you are able to find the abstract to an article and somehow you can’t get the full article.
(Really, why do I even want to see the abstract if you can’t provide the article? I’m a student, I don’t pay for articles, I pay for classes!)
Now that I’ve thought about it, you’re exactly right. I completely agree with your thoughts on this.
A typical scenario for me using my university library goes like this:
1) Find the reference using Google, CiteSeer or something that isn’t the library search engine.
2) If the full paper isn’t publicly available, access it through the university network to get the full paper.
3) If it’s a physical reference, use the library search to get the call number for the next time I’m physically there.
Really, the only reason I use the library is that they have access to many databases that are not open to the public. I only invoke their search when I already know what I’m looking for.
Andre Vellinosays:
I work for CISTI – Canada’s largest science library – and I have to admit that, until recently, I followed the algorithm outlined by Geoff in his comment. But I discovered that this is not an optimal strategy, even though it is “path of least resistance.” In fact, if you know how to search bibliographic indexes (a big IF, and, admittedly a big hurdle for most people) your recall rates are orders of magnitude better than Google Scholar and publisher sites.
The good news is that libraries and librarians are acutely aware of the need to “lower barriers to entry”, provide Google-Scholar-like interfaces to full-text indexes, etc.
If you want to have a look a few ideas that we’re experimenting with at CISTI, you can point your browser to Glen Newton’s Ungava search / browse interface to a limited collection (NRC Press content only at the moment):
It’s very much still “under construction” but it will, I hope, give you the warm fuzzies that things will improve at libraries in the future.
I hope to have an experimental prototype article recommender system hooked up to Ungava sometime in the first quarter of 2008.
Jensays:
Believe me, librarians know all of the points you addressed in your post and many are working to make things better.
As for Google Scholar, I know we offer workshops to students on how to use Google better; many don’t know you can change ‘scholar preferences’ so that it does link to your library (saving that middle step of going from Google to the library website) for articles that aren’t freely accessible.
Simply put, a lot of scholarly publications are still proprietary so we have to use those databases, at least until Open Access catches on in more fields.
I totally agree though that for some areas, there isn’t as great a need for a physical library or librarian, but we’re not all computer scientists or in IT.
I’m currently working on earning a Master’s degree in IT. The current academic semester has introduced me to the library resources because of the research oriented courses that I am taking. My professors have done a fairly good job of introducing the students on how to use the library resources, but somehow I felt like things weren’t quite right. This posting explains it. It’s most frustrating when you are able to find the abstract to an article and somehow you can’t get the full article.
(Really, why do I even want to see the abstract if you can’t provide the article? I’m a student, I don’t pay for articles, I pay for classes!)
Now that I’ve thought about it, you’re exactly right. I completely agree with your thoughts on this.
(For the readers of the above comment: he signed Daniel Lemire, and that is his name, but he is not the Daniel Lemire who maintains this blog.)
A typical scenario for me using my university library goes like this:
1) Find the reference using Google, CiteSeer or something that isn’t the library search engine.
2) If the full paper isn’t publicly available, access it through the university network to get the full paper.
3) If it’s a physical reference, use the library search to get the call number for the next time I’m physically there.
Really, the only reason I use the library is that they have access to many databases that are not open to the public. I only invoke their search when I already know what I’m looking for.
I work for CISTI – Canada’s largest science library – and I have to admit that, until recently, I followed the algorithm outlined by Geoff in his comment. But I discovered that this is not an optimal strategy, even though it is “path of least resistance.” In fact, if you know how to search bibliographic indexes (a big IF, and, admittedly a big hurdle for most people) your recall rates are orders of magnitude better than Google Scholar and publisher sites.
The good news is that libraries and librarians are acutely aware of the need to “lower barriers to entry”, provide Google-Scholar-like interfaces to full-text indexes, etc.
If you want to have a look a few ideas that we’re experimenting with at CISTI, you can point your browser to Glen Newton’s Ungava search / browse interface to a limited collection (NRC Press content only at the moment):
http://lab.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/ungava/
It includes some interesting ways of using tag-clouds, time-line views etc. Details on what its features are can be found on the CISTI Lab Wiki:
http://lab.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/cistilabswiki/index.php/Ungava
It’s very much still “under construction” but it will, I hope, give you the warm fuzzies that things will improve at libraries in the future.
I hope to have an experimental prototype article recommender system hooked up to Ungava sometime in the first quarter of 2008.
Believe me, librarians know all of the points you addressed in your post and many are working to make things better.
As for Google Scholar, I know we offer workshops to students on how to use Google better; many don’t know you can change ‘scholar preferences’ so that it does link to your library (saving that middle step of going from Google to the library website) for articles that aren’t freely accessible.
Simply put, a lot of scholarly publications are still proprietary so we have to use those databases, at least until Open Access catches on in more fields.
I totally agree though that for some areas, there isn’t as great a need for a physical library or librarian, but we’re not all computer scientists or in IT.