Roddy,
What is the main advantage of this approach over using Google Scholar (combined with access to our OpenURL service)?
GS also covers non-journal material like the contents of research repositories.
Regards,
John Smith,
University of Kent, UK.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: A general Library and Information Science list for news and
> discussion. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Roddy
> MacLeod
> Sent: 08 June 2010 12:18
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Every university & college library should have one of
> these, but so far, only one does
>
> I've just written a blog post entitled "Every university library
> should have one of these, but so far, only one does" - which could
> equally apply to college libraries:
> http://roddymacleod.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/every-university-
> library-should-have-one-of-these-but-so-far-only-one-does/
>
> Towards the middle of the post is featured the first (and so far
> only) example of a new low cost alternative to expensive A&I
> database search services, and is called WattJournals
> http://www.hw.ac.uk/library/wattjournals.php
>
> This is an example of a customisable search service with a local
> interface. It searches only journals to which a library (in this
> particular case, Heriot-Watt) subscribes (plus some OA journals).
> Full text availability is guaranteed for members of the university
> concerned, it has a simple easy-to-use interface, etc.
> WattJournals essentially provides access to the content of those
> Heriot-Watt University subscribed journals which have Table of
> Contents (TOC) RSS feeds. There are now over 14,000 journals with
> TOC RSS feeds. WattJournals also enables searches to be saved for
> later use, and the export of citations to EndNote.
>
> As libraries are faced with financial cutbacks, many may be forced
> to cancel subscriptions to expensive database search services.
> What will replace them? Google? A low-cost alternative similar
> to WattJournals may be an alternative.
>
> The details are contained in my blog post, and I think this may be
> of great interest to some libraries.
>
> Thanks for your time,
>
> Roddy MacLeod
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