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Well Peter posted some better instructions on how to edit the extension, and I'm happy to report that if I can do it, pretty much anyone who has the desire to try will be able to do it 
.
I don't want to post the U of Calgary extension that points to our resolver until I get permission from our systems folks, but here's a screenshot to show how I made it look. I just modified our SFX image to go along with my marketing plan...
Ahh, the Alberta Advantage! :-) Peter Binkley up the road at the University of Alberta has taken my original idea and run long and far with it. Programming his first Firefox extension, Peter has built a proof-of-concept OpenURL extension for Google Scholar. Basically if you have this extension installed in your version of Firefox, anytime you visit Schoogle the U of Alberta SFX options appear for content they own. Obviously you'll want to edit the extension to point to your own link resolver, which is where I'm getting bogged down. It's geeky, but I'm sure in about 15 minutes someone will come up with a better way to configure it and we'll be off to the races again.
Peter writes,
"The purpose is to enable users at an institution that has an OpenURL link-resolver to use that resolver to locate the full text of articles found in Google Scholar, instead of relying on the links to publishers' websites provided by Google. This is important because it solves the "appropriate copy problem": the link to a publisher's site is useless if you don't have a subscription that lets you into that site, and your library may provide access to the same article in an aggregator's package or elsewhere. In the example in the screenshot, for example, our link-resolver will give the same link into Blackwell-Synergy but also a link to the same article in Academic Search Premier. If we didn't subscribe to Blackwell-Synergy, the OpenURL link is the user's only lifeline to full text.
The best division of labour, therefore, is to let Google Scholar help you find a citation, and let your local link-resolver get you from there to the full text."
This also takes care of the marketing idea from my initial post, though in the case of the U of C we've just gone with the generic SFX button (
) so maybe it's time to revisit that, or to point to another graphic for this type of use...
Nice work Peter!
Quite some time ago I had read an interesting article about Singingfish, a beta multimedia search engine. That article (no idea where it was, so no link for you) was mostly concentrating on how Singingfish could be used to search NPR content, a neat idea, especially for one who so rarely gets to listen to NPR live anymore. At that time there was no public Singingfish site to play with :-(
So today brings a whole slew of articles about Singingfish and other multimedia search initiatives, including one from your friend and mine, Google. First up in my aggregator was an article from News.com, Striking up digital video search. This one talks about initiatives by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to index different (mostly video) types of media, both stuff that's on the web and stuff that's currently only on your TV. Somewhat abstract, and normally wouldn't be relevant enough to mention here.
But then a little further down in my aggregator were two articles from SearchEngineWatch, New Singingfish Beta Web Site Online, and More "Fishing" and Multimedia Search. Too much coincidence, so I had to go try them out to see how they could be relevant to distance students.
Right off the bat I'll say Singingfish (sf) seems much more relevant for academic content than does GoFish (gf). Also a lot more advanced, with personalization options, and many more limits available. Plugging a generic search for "libraries" into sf yields 1050 hits, while gf brings back zero. "Distance education" in sf results in 227 hits with quotes and 415 without, while gf gives us zero (but only if you use quotes - otherwise you'll get lots of default "or" results. There were actually quite a few full class lectures available at the top of those results.
But these aren't the types of searches a distance student looking for content would use, so then I started getting a lot more specific. Distance education and library gives us five hits in sf and (can you guess?) none in gf (though I had no idea Green Day had a song called "At the Library"). Of those five sf hits, three are relevant, with one 28 minute facilitator training video with Rob Morrison, DE Librarian at Utah State as a guest, an 8-minute press release video from UIUC, and a 22 minute intro to distance library services at the U of Louisville. So I've got a pretty good idea that I'm only going to get any remotely relevant hits from sf.
So then I did some searches on specific database names, and actually got a few generic tutorials. And this is where my long and rambling post leads. Once these search engines are a little more mature, we should be able to incorporate them into any library pages that include multimedia content (tutorials, tours, orientations, podcasts, etc) and make it easier for the students to find the multimedia content that will answer their specific information need. They've got a long way to go still, but I'm guessing by this time next year they'll be ready for prime time. I wonder if we'll have any content worth indexing? The first problem I see for my content is that it's rendered in Flash, and it doesn't appear that Singingfish indexes Flash. :-(
I haven't followed the links on this page, but it certainly looks like a valuable resource. I am familiar with a half dozen of the tools mentioned, and unfortunately some of the information on this page pertaining to those is erroneous (price, product name, etc). That's probably just an indication of how fast this area changes (the original page is from April 2004)
Link: Powerpoint To Flash Conversion Tools - The PPT2Flash Top20 - Robin Good' Sharewood Tidings.
Originally found at EdTechPost
This is nice to see. Any time I find an article that mentions support services for distance students the first thing I do is search through it for any mention of the importance of library services. It seems like more often than not, the library doesn't even get mentioned, but here's a report from Turkey (no Thanksgiving jokes here...) that mentions the importance of the library seven times. Excellent.
Link: Learner Support Services in Distance Education System (A Case Study of Turkey).
(originally found in Online Learning Update)
Art Rhyno at the U of Windsor has also been thinking about how to make Schoogle work for the distance students. You'll find a screenshot of his preferences idea down in the comments section. I like it, but think asking students to fill in the proxy info themselves is asking too much. I'm sticking to my guns in wanting libraries to be able to feed the information to Google, even if it requires the same kind of configuration that happens at RedLightGreen.
Link: Late Night Thoughts on Google Scholar. via LibraryCog
Yesterday I mentioned that we were going to introduce Google Scholar (aka Schoogle) to our EZProxy authentication server to see if our distance students could then gain access to resources we've licensed, and I'm happy to report that it works like a charm! I logged in from home and was able to gain access to the full text of everything I could when I was on campus.
Next step: get the students to use the EZProxy version of Schoogle.
OK, I haven't had a chance to try it from off campus, but we're introducing Google Scholar to our EZProxy server in the hopes that if we authenticate our students first, they will be able to access the content we have licensed when using Google Scholar. Of course this would mean the student would have to come to our library page first to go in to Scholar through our door.
Here's an idea though. What if libraries were able to work with Google to provide them with some proxy information, and what if Google allowed folks to use their appropriate proxy info right from the Google Scholar page? Here are some images I slapped together to illustrate what I have in mind:
Right on the front page would be a question along the lines of, "Are you affiliated with a College or University?" 
An off campus student or faculty member would then be taken to a page that would look something like this:
The student would either drill down geographically, or (why not go to the strength of the tool) search for and find his/her home institution. Select it, and from that time forward their proxy information would be correctly appended (or prepended, I guess would be correct with EZProxy...) and any search results would know the student was allowed acccess to Ingenta or whatever, just as if they had been sitting on campus. I think the student would have to authenticate before searching in order for this to work.
The marketing twist - since Google Scholar knows which institution the student is affiliated with, the full access links should read, "access provided by the University of Calgary Library" or something similar so the students are well aware that this stuff isn't really free. And of course this would also allow the Library Search bit to work as it does for the on-campus folks.
It might work something like this:
And that's how I think it could work. Aside from the bit about getting Google to go along with it, what am I missing?
Haven't seen anyone else pop up with this yet, but I was able to modify the Google Bookmarklet (which they call the Google Button) and make it search Google Scholar instead.
Here's one for Mozilla / Firefox / Opera: Google Scholar
Here's one for Safari: Google Scholar (thanks to Steve DiDomenico)
And here's one for IE: Google Scholar
Just drag it up to your personal toolbar folder and you should be good to go.
Well this is likely to be all over the library web today, but Google Scholar has just launched and will have a big impact on our distance students. I predict they will find it easier to use this less comprehensive tool and will for the most part start trickling away from our quality full text databases. Our distance students are particularly at risk because we can't keep an eye on what they're using to search and it's harder to get the word out about what we have. Major education is needed to let them know what they're missing if the jump fully on the Google Scholar bandwagon.
Wow!!! It's Google Scholar Web Search--Google
Big News: "Google Scholar" is Born
By Shirl Kennedy and Gary Price
The world of online "scholarly" research is changing today as Google introduces Google Scholar. This specialized new interface -- which will NOT be linked from Google's main search page -- will allow users to search a treasure chest of "scholarly material."
...
As Google makes this announcement and word spreads about a "scholarly search tool" -- ESPECIALLY in the academic community -- we think the use of specialty databases (the ones university libraries offer and spend $$$ for) will drop. It's worth watching to see if people begin paying for material located via Google Scholar that they can get *free* from a specialty database they may not know is available via their public or academic library.
[via ResourceShelf]
The other day I was pointed by LIS News to an interesting documentary at Soundprint called Who Needs Libraries? It's a half-hour streaming audio piece that takes a look at the relevance of libraries in today's Webworld. There's nothing in here you haven't read in a dozen other places, but it's neat to hear it instead of read it. Lots of information about the pros and cons of digitization, including some interesting stuff about what's contained in the original Shakespeare folios at the Folger. They also discuss the lack of permanence of the digital information we have, with a nifty reference to Rollerball (the original version) and the scene where the librarian has misplaced pretty much the whole 13th century :-) (I don't think I've watched that movie since I became a librarian - I'll have to give it another go...)
They mention several times that lots of stuff can be obtained in online databases, but never mention that those databases can be accessed remotely! They keep mentioning people coming in to the library to access these databases, and use that as evidence of the continued importance of the library. Bad argument says me.
I did have a little light-bulb moment towards the end, when someone was talking about analogies. The World Wide Web shouldn't be compared to a library, it should be compared to a big encyclopedia. They were talking about the type of facts that people use the web to find - stuff they wouldn't normally go to a library to find anyway (they could, but they wouldn't, just for one fact). IMHO, libraries aren't in danger of becoming obsolete, but when was the last time anyone you know bought a multi-volume encyclopedia for the home?!?
Oh, forgot to mention there are also some neat links towards the bottom of the page, including one to the Internet Archive where they have a copy of the 1947 b&w film, The Librarian.
I only found out I am of Croatian heritage about a year or two ago, so since then I've been looking for a way to get over there and explore my motherland. Earlier this year, about a week before it happened, I found out about the Libraries in the Digital Age conference that's held in Croatia each year. The CFP for 2005 was just announced though, so I'm on top of it this time. I'll have to work in a distance librarianship angle, but that shouldn't be too hard with Digital Libraries. The conference is located in Dubrovnik and Mljet , Croatia, May 30 – June 3, 2005. Will I see you there? :-)
Seriously, if you've never considered visiting Croatia before (and I hadn't before I know more about me), follow those links above - what a neat and beautiful place!
Back in 1999, Judith Boettcher made a number of predictions for what the world of distance education would look like in 2007 (21st Century Teaching and Learning Patterns: What Will We See?). In the most recent issue of Campus Technology (formerly Syllabus), she takes a look at those predictions in an article called, "Are We There Yet?" Not sure why she checked in again at the 5 year mark, but there you go.
This most recent article doesn't follow the original predictions in step, nor does it follow all the predictions, but she does mention librarians in a distance context, so I thought I'd bring it to your attention.
When examining the idea that students will be savvy consumers of educational services, she points out that, "More courses are now supported by an instructional team with a lead faculty, a course mentor or assistant, library liaison, and often 24/7 technical support."
This is certainly true on my campus. It's not the norm yet, but more and more online courses do seem to have this team approach, and more and more of them are utilizing "traditional subject librarians" and not just me, the distance librarian (thankfully!)
Incidentally, she does mention the library a couple of times in that original article - go ahead and read it, it took me a while to track it down in the Wayback Machine :-)
Found this article as a result of one of my EBSCO Alerts:
Best Practices for Helping Students Complete Online Degree Programs. By: Gaide, Susan. DistanceEducation Report, 10/15/2004, Vol. 8 Issue 20, p8, 1p; (AN 14742493)
If you have a subscription to Academic Search Premier, that link should take you right in.
Basically it's a one-pager listing 10 things an institution can do to ensure the success of their distance students, and number 9 is, " Library Resources. Institutions must make available to online students the same academic resources available to on-campus students. Lesht recommends that institutions subscribe to databases and invest in the archiving of resource materials to provide accessibility to online students."
Here's another person interested in the idea of Podcasting for education...
I have been thinking a lot of the potential of the medium. I really think there is something here for education!
In my opinion Podcasting is a great tool:
I have registered edupodder.com and have the space available for use. I plan to do some research on the subject and would like to start my own feed.
~Steve Sloan
On RefCan-L there was recently a call for a list of sites that reviewed electronic resources, and I have just received permission to reproduce that list here.
The Gale Group at
http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/reference/peter/index.htm
Online
ISSN: 0146-5422
Publisher Information: Information Today Inc.
http://www.onlineinc.com/
Research Buzz - (http://www.researchbuzz.com)
Charleston Advisor -- peer reviewed, subscription-based. http://www.charlestonco.com
Technology Electronic Reviews (TER) (http://www.ala.org/ala/lita/litapublications/ter/tertechnology.htm)
Resources include books, articles, serials, discussion lists, training materials, bibliographies, and other items of interest to librarians and information technology professionals. The topics covered may include, but are not limited to, networking technologies and standards; hardware and software; operating systems; databases; specific programming languages; management tools and utilities; technical project management; training and personnel issues; library perspectives; and research and development."
Current Cites (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/) from the University of California at Berkeley describes itself as "an annotated bibliography of selected articles, books, and digital documents on information technology."
Ariadne (http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/), a periodical from the UK, covers electronic resources.
"BIOME [http://biome.ac.uk] provides free access to hand-selected
and evaluated, quality Internet resources for students, lecturers, researchers and practitioners in the Health and Life Sciences.
Information Today's Link-Up Digital (http://www.infotoday.com/linkup/default.shtml) "is a new, biweekly updated, Web-only section featuring articles, reviews, and more for savvy users and producers of electronic information products and services."
Some disciplines publish online journals that offer reviews of electronic resources specific to that discipline's domain, for example, Early Modern Literary Studies: Reviews of Electronic Resources
(http://www.shu.ac.uk/emls/iemls/reviews/).
You can find others by searching for these titles on Google and then clicking the "Similar pages" link.
Here's a brief article from Computerworld about the change to Macromedia's RoboDemo: Macromedia hopes it can Captivate us all. The new product (Captivate) isn't on the market yet, but you can find out a little more at the Macromedia website.
About the only thing I saw in the writeup that intrigues me is the ability to put multiple balloons etc. on each slide, something that ViewletBuilder doesn't do w/o a little fudging.
I've been listening to Podcasts for about six weeks now, and every once in a while the thought occurs to me that they could be useful in Higher Education, if not the library world. Never got around to drafting my thoughts on the subject, but my colleague D'Arcy just did, so I'll drop you off there...
It’s the second point I’m hoping to play around with - documenting some of the thinking and developments by some of the folks in the learning technology field - hopefully I’d be able to do something like an ITConversations for educational technology stuff. If it works, and doesn’t completely suck, I’d use that as an example for faculty who are interested in the concept. If it doesn’t work, or completely sucks, well - that’s a valid data point as well… The shared lecture audio is a no brainer, in my mind… The various bits that make up podcasting have been around forever (digital audio, internet distribution, RSS syndication), but the combination of the three makes for a system that approximates a personalized radio station. Imagine each institution having its own podcast directory, and students (as well as faculty) could select which ones they wanted automatically downloaded for review, in their own “university radio station” aggregation…
I just wanted to capture some possible compelling uses for podcasting in an educational setting.
