Librarians frequently lament the fact that patrons rely solely on Google and Yahoo for searching, completely missing all of the great stuff that’s available in the subscription databases. Thomson Gale is working to address this by making their database contents accessible by web crawlers. When searchers try to access the database articles that appear in their search results, they will need to enter their local library card number in order to access the content.
Database contents have long been considered one of the key components of the invisible web . This new development may help make that invisible web a whole lot smaller.
Comment By: Brenda
June 28th, 2005 at 10:46 am
Here’s another article on the same topic http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8AOV0G00.htm?campaign_id=apn_tech_down . This article discusses some of the pros and cons (including the fact that Google/Yahoo searchers may in fact be frustrated by the listings if they cannot get to the full-text).