Xiaotian Chen

Metalib, WebFeat, and google : The strengths and weaknesses of federated search engines compared with google

Purpose – Seeks to describe library federated search engines MetaLib and WebFeat as research tools by comparing MetaLib with WebFeat and by highlighting their strengths and weaknesses against Google and Google Scholar.Design/methodology/approach – This study tested MetaLib and WebFeat from various libraries; attended vendor demos and asked vendors questions; reviewed literature; and interviewed system administrators of MetaLib and WebFeat.Findings – MetaLib and WebFeat have fundamental differences between them. They cannot compete with Google in speed, simplicity, ease of use, and convenience, nor can they be truly one‐stop shopping. Their strengths lie in the contents they search as well as in the objective way they retrieve and display results. With the federated search engines, information literacy education is still relevant.Originality/value – The comprehensive comparisons of MetaLib and WebFeat from the perspectives of both users and system administrators are original. It helps libraries make decisi...

Google Books and WorldCat: a comparison of their content

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare Google Books with WorldCat and to assess some other functionalities of Google Books.Design/methodology/approach – Over 500 random samples generated from WorldCat were searched on Google Books. The search results were used to compare the coverage between Google Books and WorldCat, to estimate the successful link rate to a local library catalogue, the percentage available as full view, snippet, and preview on Google Books, and other services of Google Books.Findings – Google Books can retrieve almost all the books catalogued in WorldCat. Its “Find in a library” link to a local library catalogue works 75 percent of the time. Fewer than 10 percent of Google Books items have free full views, and about 15 percent have snippets and previews, respectively. Previews are much more useful than snippets. Google Books probably indexes books that it does not possess in digital form, in addition to indexing all the books that it has acquired in digital form.Originality/v...

Assessment of full‐text sources used by serials management systems, OpenURL link resolvers, and imported e‐journal MARC records

This article discusses full‐text source lists used by full‐text finding tools, such as serials management systems, OpenURL link resolvers, and imported e‐journal MARC records. Although the vendors of full‐text finding tools claim that they frequently update their full‐text source lists with changes in full‐text titles, ISSNs, coverage dates, and other information, they actually rely on content providers to offer title lists and coverage information. Not all content providers offer accurate and updated full‐text source lists in terms of full‐text titles included, coverage dates and embargo periods, and formats and file types. As a result, librarians and users using serials management systems, OpenURL link resolvers, or OPACs for finding full‐text periodicals are sometimes taken to dead ends. Vendors of both full‐text finding tools and full‐text content need to improve the accuracy and currency of their services.

E-Journal Cataloging in an Age of Alternatives: A Survey of Academic Libraries

This article reports on a survey of U.S. academic libraries that was conducted in the spring of 2008 to determine if and how academic libraries were actively cataloging e-journals in the age of the OpenURL, A–Z journal lists, and the batch loading of purchased MARC records.

Open Access in 2013: Reaching the 50% Milestone

This article reports a 2013 study on the percentage of Open Access (OA) journal articles. Following the 2009 Björk et al. (2010) model, this study generated 2,655 random sample articles published in 2012 from Scopus. It found that 37.8% of Scopus samples have free full text on the Internet, a significant increase from 20.4% recorded by the Björk et al. study. Because the vast majority of the 9,900 OA journals listed by DOAJ are not indexed by Scopus, this study projects with caution that human history is reaching a milestone; either the percentage of OA articles published in the previous year is very close to 50% or it has passed that mark.

Blog Archiving Issues: A Look at Blogs on Major Events and Popular Blogs

This paper describes the state of blog archiving by identifying from the published literature the most popular blogs and blogs on major events. Next it will check their current status and archiving methods. Blogs are not systematically archived, and some blogs on major events of the first decade of this millennium may already have been lost. It calls for better preservation and organization of blogs that have historical significance.

Journal Article Retrieval in an Age of Open Access: How Journal Indexes Indicate Open Access Articles

As the number of Open Access (OA) journal articles increases dramatically, it is time to assess how journal article indexes, both free and subscription-based, retrieve and indicate OA full text. This study uses 471 samples of OA articles to compare OA article retrieval in Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopus, with Scopus representing subscription-based journal indexes. This study divides journal articles into two categories: Gold OA and Green OA. Gold OA articles are published in journals that make all their articles freely available on the Internet, and all other OA articles are placed in the Green OA category. The study finds that all three indexes can indicate Gold OA availability in one way or another, but they differ dramatically when indicating Green OA availability: Google Scholar can offer free full-text indicators for 96 percent of Green OA articles, PubMeds rate is 29 percent, and Scopuss is zero. Subscription-based journal indexes and OpenURL link resolvers are, at present, incapable of indicating Green OA full-text availability. Vendors of subscription-based indexes and OpenURL link resolvers must overcome this challenge in order to stay relevant in the age of OA. In the meantime, librarians may want to take advantage of Google Scholar and PubMed to better serve library patrons.

SFX Miscellaneous Free Ejournals Target: Usage Survey among the SFX Community

The number of free or open access articles is increasing rapidly, and their retrieval with library indexes and OpenURL link resolvers has been a challenge. In June 2014, the SFX MISCELLANEOUS_FREE_EJOURNALS target contained more than 24,000 portfolios of all kinds. The SFX KnowledgeBase Advisory Board (KBAB) carried out an international survey to get an overview of the usage of this target by the SFX community and to precisely identify what could be done to improve it. The target is widely used among the community. However, many respondents complained about three major problems: (a) incorrect links, (b) full texts actually not free, and (c) incorrect or missing thresholds (years and volumes information).

Questionable University-sponsored supplements in high-impact journals

Abstract This article raises the awareness of university-sponsored supplements in high-impact journals and the issues of this new practice. Based on a library user’s complaint of a dead OpenURL link, this study looks over dozens of articles from university-sponsored supplements in Science, Nature, and Cell Press journals. It compares their metadata with those of regular articles from the parent journals. It also compares how these supplements are indexed by comprehensive journal indexes (Academic Search Complete, Scopus, and Web of Science). It found that various universities and research institutes in East Asia, mainly China, are major sponsors of supplements of key journals in recent years. The issues along with this new practice include dead OpenURL linking, index irregularities, self-congratulatory sponsors and their misled audience in East Asia. The media in China was so misled that it ranked one sponsored story among world top 10 news. It questions the ethics in publishing university-sponsored supplements, and calls for standardizations of assigning metadata including DOI as well as adding a disclaimer to all supplement articles.