Robbins Library Notes

Good morning, readers!

Over the last several months, HCL has rolled a new search interface for HOLLIS. But, this doesn’t mean that we’ve left the older interface behind — far from it.  Now re-branded as “HOLLIS Classic,” the older interface is still available for you to use.

Both HOLLIS and HOLLIS Classic can search Harvard’s library catalog, but what are the advantages of each, and when should you use them? My HCL colleagues have come up with the following cheat sheet:

HOLLIS

• Easy-to-use, intuitive interface
• Relevance-ranked results
• One-click search refinement – filter searches by publication, date, format, language and more
• More searchable tables of contents
• Built in spell checker

HOLLIS Classic

• Browse subject headings and author names
• Search by call numbers
• Search using non-Latin characters
• Refine searches using exact phrases
• Powerful “Expanded Search” feature for more precise searches

In short, both interfaces have their place in your research toolkit.  When used in tandem — just as when you use, e.g., JSTOR and Academic Search Premier in tandem — your searching becomes that much more effective and powerful.

If you are interested in learning more about the interfaces, or are interested in seeing a demonstration, please let me know.  I’d love to show you!

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For Firefox users, check out this post by Adrienne Carlson, “50 Firefox Extensions to Turn Google Into the Ultimate Research Tool.”  Some very cool stuff here.

Good morning, readers!

Lots of great items in this week’s Library News & Notes. Some of the most interesting include:

• A Bing/Google comparison
• “The end of theory in science?”
• “How Many Scientists Fabricate and Falsify Research? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Survey Data”
• “58 Essential Resources For Every Mac Geek”
• More on Twitter and Wolfram|Alpha

Enjoy!

Good morning, readers!

Five items of interest today — the first, third, and fourth items are via Bookforum.com:

• Julian Baggini reports on Jonathan Israel’s attempts to get analytic philosophy to reconsider an historical and contextual approach to philosophy.
• Simon Critchley writes about happiness.
• Nathan Schneider looks at how scientists and theologians are coming together on questions about the multiverse problem.
• Along a similar vein, in terms of theoretical physics, Paul Steinhardt and Peter Galison discuss philosophy, physics, and truth.
• Microsoft is rebranding its search engine to “Bing,” and restructuring how its searches are performed.  If I’m reading this story correctly, the new Bing engine is the next attempt to topple Google’s dominance in the search engine market.

Next week’s post will be on Wednesday, since I will be out for commencement exercises next Thursday and Friday.  See you then!

Good morning, readers!

This week, I have a number of items on search engines that may interest you:

Via Garrett Eastman’s Library News & Notes, several articles on Wolfram|Alpha, which I mentioned last week.

• Impressive: The Wolfram Alpha “Fact Engine”
  http://searchengineland.com/wolfram-alpha-fact-engine-18431
  (Source: Pandia Search World)
• See also: Ask Alpha: Quizzing the world’s first answer engine
  http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227075.600-ask-alpha-quizzing-the-worlds-first-answer-engine.html
  (Source: Science in the News)
• See also: Wolfram Alpha and Google Face Off
  http://www.technologyreview.com/web/22585/
• See also: Wolfram Alpha vs. Google: Answers to Your Queries
  http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/23495/
  (Source: dweinberger)
• Wolfram Alpha vs. Google = Power vs. Simplicity?
  http://ow.ly/5N9N
• See also: Little search engines that could
  http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/05/07/little-search-engines-that-could/

It’s my understand that Wolfram|Alpha will launch this coming Monday, 18 May.

I don’t think Wolfram|Alpha will be a “Google killer.”  The data it collects and parses is somewhat different from the majority of Google searches.  My guess is that it will become a very useful niche search engine, to be used in conjunction with Google.

In other search engine news:

• Google announces that is offering “smarter” searches
• CNN.com/technology looks at alternative niche search engines to supplement Google.

Good morning, readers!

Yesterday, I received information about the court-approved Notice to the Google Book Search settlement, and have been asked to update you about this.  You can read the Notice at http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/notice.html. This Notice, according to the e-mail I received, “summarizes the settlement, important terms, claims process, and key dates.”

Additionally, “rightsholders may now claim their works at http://www.googlebooksettlement.com.”

Good morning, readers! Happy Monday to you!

A reader commenting on my post about Soople last year let me know about another search engine, Onlyjust.net. This is a very cool search engine that puts all of Google’s functionality, including some of its hidden functionality, in one place. Definitely take this out for a spin, if you are a heavy Google user.

Good morning, readers! Welcome back!

Via Bookforum.com: some interesting commentary on Robert Darnton’s piece on Google about which I recently posted.

I’m also curious to know what people think about Amazon’s second-generation Kindle e-book reader. I agree that e-books will change and re-shape the way we read — not necessarily a bad thing — but I’m still not sold on the idea that they will supplant paper books entirely.

What do you think?

Good morning, readers!

While browsing through Bookforum.com yesterday, I came across Robert Darnton’s “Google and the Future of Books,” from the latest issue of the New York Review of Books.

Darnton offers an interesting analysis of Google’s recent settlement with the Authors’ Guild, taking us through an historical examination of the Republic of Letters and the development of copyright law, and how this applies to present times.

Quite fascinating, and worth reading, especially since he raises some excellent questions about the power we are giving Google.

Good morning, readers!  Happy Friday to you!

To end the week, here are two articles, via “American Libraries Direct”:

• “Twittering Tips for Beginners,” by David Pogue
• “10 really cool Google Chrome hacks: Get the most from Google’s browser with our handy guide,” from TechRadar.com

Interesting to see that Chrome is gaining traction as a browser, since it was met with an underwhelming response when it was launched last year.

Chrome might be worth checking out, as an alternative to Firefox and Internet Explorer.  I haven’t used Twitter much, and I’m still not quite sold on its capabilities, though Pogue does make a good case for its uses.

Enjoy!

Good morning, readers, and welcome back from the long weekend.

For your amusement today, a potpourri of technology-related articles:

• Turning Page, E-Books Start to Take Hold. My take: we’ll see about this.  How much of this marketing hype, and how much of this is real, especially since, as the article claims, Amazon.com won’t release sales numbers for the Kindle?  I still don’t think that the e-book will completely replace the physical codex.  I do think it’s possible — in fact, it’s desirable — that both forms co-exist.  I’m still not sold on the hype that I should buy some several hundred dollar gizmo that needs to be replaced every 18 months merely because of its novelty when I can just buy a book and enjoy it without having to worry about connectivity, software compatibility, battery life, etc.

• Is Google’s culture grab unstoppable? Monopoly Money from Digital Books.  This is an anti-Google piece worth considering.

A hat-tip to Garrett Eastman’s Library News & Notes for these articles.