Search results

Digital libraries and academic search engines have developed as two important online scholarly information sources with different features. The purpose of this study is to compare digital libraries and academic search engines from the perspective of the dual-route model.

Research hypotheses were developed. Potential participants were recruited to answer an online survey distributing at Chinese social media out of which 251 responses were deemed to be valid and used for data analysis. The paired samples t-test was used to compare the means.

Both information quality (central route) and source credibility (peripheral route) of digital libraries are significantly higher than those of academic search engines, while there is no significant difference between digital libraries and academic search engines in terms of affinity (peripheral route).

In the digital information society, the important status of digital libraries as conventional information sources should be spread by necessary measures. Academic search engines can act as complementary online information sources for seeking academic information rather than the substitute for digital libraries. Practitioners of digital libraries should value the complementary role of academic search engines and encourage users to use academic search engines while emphasizing the importance of digital libraries as conventional information sources.

According to the dual-route model, this study compares digital libraries and academic search engines in terms of information quality, source credibility and affinity, which the authors believe presents a new lens for digital libraries research and practice alike.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of user demographic characteristics on the impact of usage of search engines, particularly Google, with special regard to OPAC in the context of an Indian university setting.

This study is based on a survey where the tool of investigation was a close‐ended questionnaire that was distributed among respondents, was self‐filled and returned. The data, thus collected, were processed on MS‐Excel and subsequently on the SPSS statistical package which was used specifically for the analysis of results and also for producing cross‐tables. The Chi‐square test was applied to determine the comparability or the existence of any relationship between the impact of web searching on OPAC use and demographic characteristics of individual searchers.

The study found significant differences between OPAC usage patterns and demographic characteristics of user categories and age groups. Significant variations were noticed among user age groups for awareness about differences between the inner‐workings of the OPAC and web search engines. A significant relationship was found between male and female users vis‐à‐vis their viewpoint after unsuccessful searches. Certain variations were also observed among academic majors with regard to perceptions of users after failed searches. Interestingly, no significant differences were observed between actions of users after unsuccessful searches and the parameters pertaining to their age groups, categories, academic majors and gender.

This is in all probability one of the first empirical studies to be published on the influence of demographic characteristics of users on the impact of web searching with respect to OPAC use. These characteristics have been observed to definitively impact upon the influence of web searching in some limited activities.

The purpose of this article is to provide a critical review of Bergman's study on the deep web. In addition, this study brings a new concept into the discussion, the academic invisible web (AIW). The paper defines the academic invisible web as consisting of all databases and collections relevant to academia but not searchable by the general‐purpose internet search engines. Indexing this part of the invisible web is central to scientific search engines. This paper provides an overview of approaches followed thus far.

Provides a discussion of measures and calculations, estimation based on informetric laws. Also gives a literature review on approaches for uncovering information from the invisible web.

Bergman's size estimate of the invisible web is highly questionable. This paper demonstrates some major errors in the conceptual design of the Bergman paper. A new (raw) size estimate is given.

The precision of this estimate is limited due to a small sample size and lack of reliable data.

This study can show that no single library alone will be able to index the academic invisible web. The study suggests a collaboration to accomplish this task.

Provides library managers and those interested in developing academic search engines with data on the size and attributes of the academic invisible web.

The aim of this paper is to examine the phenomenon of search engine optimization (SEO) as a mechanism for improving libraries' digital content findability on the web.

The study applies web analytical tools, such as Alexa.com, in the collection of data about Canadian libraries' visibility performance in the ranking of search engine results. Concepts from the Integrated IS&R Research Framework are applied to analyze SEO as an element within the Framework.

The results show that certain websites' characteristics do have an effect on how well libraries' websites are ranked by search engines. Notably, the reputation of a library's website and the number of its search engine indexed webpages increase its ranking on SERPs as well as the findability of its digital content.

Most of the existing works on SEO have been confined to popular literature, outside of scholarly academic research in library and information science. Only few studies with a focus on libraries' application of SEO exist. No known study has applied an empirical approach to the examination of relevant libraries' website characteristics to determine their visibility performance on search engine result pages (SERPs). This study identified several website characteristics that can be optimized for higher SERP rankings. It also analyzed the impact of external links, as well as that of the number of indexed webpages by search engines on higher SERP rankings.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of various search engines and meta search engines by Indian academics for retrieving information on the web. It also aims to know whether the academics use search strategy of various search engines for retrieval of information or not, and how the Indian academics learn the various search strategies for using search engines.

The data collection instruments used for this study were a questionnaire and follow-up interviews with students and faculty members. The questionnaire consisted of various questions which were designed to elicit the use of search engines, search strategies and method of leaning the search strategies of search engines. A total of 450 questionnaires were distributed, out of which 300 duly filled copies were returned, constituting a 66.66 percent response rate. The data thus collected were analysed with the help of the SPSS (version 19.0) statistical package to present the findings in percentage and test the formulated hypothesis.

The findings of the survey show that the majority of the respondents most frequently used Google (91.93 percent) and Yahoo (43.85 percent) while Dogpile and Ixquick (35.78 percent each) were less frequently used by the respondents. 65.26 percent of respondents used the search strategy for retrieving information. The study also shows that there is a significant relationship between the respondent's profession and use of search engines (p=0.018) as well use search strategies of search engines (p=0.028). Method of learning the search strategies of search engines is also associated with the respondent's profession (p=0.008).

The results of this study have clear implications for information literacy instruction in the context of search engines. The study recommends that there is a need to conduct intensive training for students and faculty members in order for them to acquire the essential search strategies for effective information retrieval. The findings of the study will be helpful to concerned authorities to enhance the effective and efficient use of search engines by the respondents.

The aim of this paper is to study the impact of internet search engine usage with special reference to OPAC searches in the Punjabi University Library, Patiala, Punjab (India).

The primary data were collected from 352 users comprising faculty, research scholars and postgraduate students of the university. A questionnaire was designed as the data collection tool to obtain information on the impact of the web on OPAC. The data thus collected were analysed with the help of the SPSS (version 14.0) statistical package to present the findings in percentage and ranking formats.

The study revealed that the information‐searching behaviour of academicians was changing significantly in the web environment. A large number of users explored the web to garner relevant information for academic purposes. The majority were influenced by search engines because they also used OPAC, like the search engines. It is also clear from the study that internet search engines not only affected OPAC users in developed countries, but also impacted upon the less developed countries like India. Thus, it is more a battle of survival and sustainability for the OPAC vis‐à‐vis its close contemporary the web‐search engine.

This is a pioneering work in India studying the impact of web searching on OPAC users. Keeping in perspective the approach of twenty‐first century users, the present research suggests recommendations for designing a user friendly OPAC that entails simplistic search strategies for university libraries of India and other developing countries.

This paper aims to identify the opinions of undergraduate students on the importance of internet‐based information sources when they undertake academic tasks.

Based on a set of identified typical academic tasks for undergraduate students, three research questions were designed around the students' usage and views of information resources for completing these tasks. Web‐accessible questionnaires were used to collect data from participants in two universities in the USA and China, and the data were analyzed using quantitative methods, which included several statistic methods.

The results confirm that undergraduate students use different information resources for various academic tasks. In their tasks, online electronic resources including search engines are the most commonly used resources, particularly for complex academic tasks. Social networking sites are not used for the students' individual academic tasks, and traditional resources still play equal or more important roles in certain specific academic tasks. Students in collaborative tasks look for resources that make it easy to share documents. Participants from the two countries also exhibit interesting and important differences in their usage of information resources.

This study examines undergraduate students' usages and views of different information resources in their various academic tasks, and pays special attention to the impacts of being from their different countries. The study also considers both students' individual academic tasks and collaborative tasks. This study is an invaluable addition to the information seeking behaviour literature.

This study aims to discover how domain familiarity and language affect the cognitive load and the strategies applied for the evaluation of search engine results pages (SERP).

This study used an experimental research design. The pattern of the experiment was based upon repeated measures design. Each student was given four SERPs varying in two dimensions: language and content. The criteria of students to decide on the three best links within the SERP, the reasoning behind their selection, and their perceived cognitive load of the given task were the repeated measures collected from each participant.

The evaluation criteria changed according to the language and task type. The cognitive load was reported higher when the content was presented in English or when the content was academic. Regarding the search strategies, a majority of students trusted familiar sources or relied on keywords they found in the short description of the links. A qualitative analysis showed that students can be grouped into different types according to the reasons they stated for their choices. Source seeker, keyword seeker and specific information seeker were the most common types observed.

This study has an international scope with regard to data collection. Moreover, the tasks and findings contribute to the literature on information literacy.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the obsolescence process of Microsoft Academic Search (MAS) as well as the effects of this decline in the coverage of disciplines and journals, and their influence in the representativeness of organizations.

The total number of records and those belonging to the most reputable journals (1,762) and organizations (346) according to the Field Rating indicator in each of the 15 fields and 204 sub-fields of MAS, have been collected and statistically analysed in March 2014, by means of an automated querying process via http, covering academic publications from 1700 to present.

MAS has no longer been updated since 2013, although this phenomenon began to be glimpsed in 2011, when its coverage plummeted. Throughout 2014, indexing of new records is still ongoing, but at a minimum rate, without following any apparent pattern.

There are also retrospective records being indexed at present. In this sense, this research provides a picture of what MAS offered during March 2014 being queried directly via http.

The unnoticed obsolescence of MAS affects to the quality of the service offered to its users (both those who engage in scientific information seeking and also those who use it for quantitative purposes).

The predominance of Google Scholar (GS) as monopoly in the academic search engines market as well as the prevalence of an open construction model (GS) vs a closed model (MAS).

A complete longitudinal analysis of disciplines, journals and organizations on MAS has been performed for the first time identifying an unnoticed obsolescence. Any public explanation or disclaimer note has been announced from the responsible company, something incomprehensible given its implications for the reliability and validity of bibliometric data provided on disciplines, journals, authors and congress as well as their fair representation on the academic search engine.

The purpose of this paper is to form one of a series which will give an overview of so‐called “transformational” areas of digital library technology. The aim will be to assess how much real transformation these applications are bringing about, in terms of creating genuine user benefit and also changing everyday library practice.

An overview of the present state of development of the one‐stop shop library search engine, with particular reference to its relationship with the underlying bibliographic databases to which it provides a simplified single interface.

The paper finds that the success of federated searching has proved valuable but limited to date in creating a one‐stop shop search engine to rival Google Scholar; but the persistent value of the bibliographic databases sitting underneath a federated search system means that a harvesting search engine could well answer the need for a true one‐stop search engine for academic and scholarly information.

This paper is based on the hypothesis that Google's success in providing such an apparently high degree of access to electronic journal services is not what it seems, and that it does not render library discovery tools obsolete. It argues that Google has not diminished the pre‐eminent role of library bibliographic databases in mediating access to e‐journal text, although this hypothesis needs further research to validate or disprove it.

The paper affirms the value of bibliographic databases to practitioner librarians and the potential of single interface discovery tools in library practice.

The paper uses statistics from US LIS sources to shed light on UK discovery tool issues.