[re-search] Utrecht University library surrenders to Google

[René König]

Hi Ulf & list,

Thanks for your feedback! It´s pretty much exactly what I think.
Somebody from Utrecht University library has reacted to my tweet (one of the
beautiful dynamics of Twitter), justifying their approach. I do see their
point: Why acting against the actual user behavior and wasting the tight
budget? Anyway, the question if we (academia as well as the general society)
wants to leave the important field of search technology to a few commercial
companies goes way beyond the decisions of a single library. Something for
our upcoming Society of the Query conference
(http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/weblog/2013/04/23/save-the-date-society-of-
the-query-2-november-7-8-2013-in-amsterdam/)...
Cheers,

René   


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Ulf-Dietrich Reips [mailto:reips at deusto.es] 
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 30. Mai 2013 22:35
An: René König; re-search at listcultures.org
Betreff: Re: [re-search] Utrecht University library surrenders to Google

Hi Renë, all:
for a long time I couldn't stand outdated library technologies and
cataloguing projects (and the nerves and money wasted on them) in light of
the simple and efficient Google approach.

However, nowadays with near monopolistic and increasingly regulated and
commercialized optimization of Google search algorithms we should imho take
care to keep and develop excellent independent solutions.

Kind regards
Ulf

At 16:16 Uhr +0200 30.5.2013, René König wrote:
>Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
>	boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0029_01CE5D51.18E6DC00"
>Content-Language: de
>
>Hello everybody,
>
>This is not exactly brand new but I´d be very interested in your opinion.
>The Utrecht University library kind of surrenders to Google et al. by 
>not investing in their own search tools since their visitors anyway use 
>other services like Google Scholar or Scopus (http://bit.ly/114mXPJ). 
>While a colleague applauds them "for acting based on their findings, 
>not on wishes or institutional politics", I find this form of 
>surrendering to Google rather sad and alarming. But ok, I can´t claim 
>that I don´t use these services myself. Anyway, this example once more 
>raises the question how we should deal with the supremacy of Google et 
>al. Obviously, forcing people to use library search tool cannot be the 
>answer but what can we do?
>What´s your opinion?
>Best,
>
>René
>
>
>
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Prof. Dr. Ulf-Dietrich Reips
	Ikerbasque Research Professor     
	Director, iScience group
	Facultades de Ingenería y de Psicología y Educación
	Universidad de Deusto
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