I discovered that I’m a Google Scholar. I guess this means that you’ll have to treat me with more respect; call me “Ms. Powers” or perhaps “Lady Burning” (please, not “Lady Bird”) and that sort of thing.
I don’t normally jump on all the cool gadgets that come out, but the Google Scholar looks to be very useful, and intriguing. For instance, when I did look up my name, I could click on a Library Link associated with my book, Practical RDF, and find out that it’s part of the stacks at St. Louis University and the University of Missouri. Which is rather cool if you think on it: the service and the fact that my book is at these two universities.
From there, I can access a page that could be used to request this book, or at least do a search at that particular library. Now that is pretty damn exciting, even for a jaded tech such as myself.
Let’s say I’m interested in finding out which library might have a copy of the popular book, “Birth of the Chess Queen: A History”, by Marilyn Yalom. I can search on her author name and the title, and find a reference to this book. From there I can click a link to find the local libraries that have this. Clicking on one of these, actually takes you to the web-based system to request this book. I’ve had a request in for this book at the County library for a couple of months. However, I found that the city library now has this book, and it’s checked in, so I can cancel my request at the County and place it at the City.
Good stuff. Read more about it at the Google Blog.
