This week we feature some innovative (and really cool!) web search tools: Google Scholar, Findory, WebBrain, Mooter, Visual Thesaurus and TopicMap from Highwire Press.
1)Google Scholar
The big news in the research world last week was the launch (beta) of Google Scholar, (a.k.a. Schoogle) Google�s search engine for scholarly research material �specifically � scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research�. An interesting feature is that �Google Scholar also automatically analyzes and extracts citations and presents them as separate results, even if the documents they refer to are not online.� Other neat features are: book citations come with a �Library Search� option to find books and a �Web Search� option to find bookstores, and a �Cited By� icon can lead directly to articles citing the article record displayed. Early evaluation shows that there is an emphasis on science and technology rather than arts, humanities and social sciences and that not all results are from the scholarly literature. Also, some results are not free and require you to pay for access. Please note that you may be able to access some of the fee-based materials at your local library for free. The Library @ Mohawk subscribes to many research databases of scholarly material so check with the Library before purchasing the materials you find in Google Scholar. Here�s an example of how Google Scholar works:
1. I�d like some scholary information on �global warming�. I�m not sure yet what aspect I�d like to cover so I will enter only �global warming� into Google Scholar and not narrow my search just yet.
2. The first book looks interesting. I click the link �Library Search�, enter my postal code and find out which library near me owns the book. Schoogle tells me that McMaster is the closest Library that owns this particular book.
3. The first article looks good: �The Impact of Global Warming on Agriculture�. When I click on it I see that it is not freely available on the web. But�it is available in the Library @ Mohawk research databases! After chatting with my friendly local library staff person, I find out that the full-text can be accessed from the Business Source Elite database!
4. The next neat thing to look at is the citation, indicated by the word �citation� in square brackets. Click on the �cited by� link and see all the articles whose author has cited this particular article.
Those are some of the cool things you can do with Google Scholar! Remember, if you find a great resource and it isn�t available for free online, we just may have it online for free in the Library @ Mohawk!
2) News that’s just for you?? You bet! Personalization with Findory.com
Findory is a handy and customizable news website with some really great features. Sure it’s the standard national, international, entertainment, sports and business news, but the neat thing about Findory is that the more you click, the more your news is customized! So, for instance, I chose to read an article on the protests happening in Ukraine this week -when I went back to my Findory homepage, lo and behold there were two more articles
on the very same subject from different news sources! It’s really quite an interesting site – complete with a wide variety of blogs to check out as well. You can even receive Findory news via email or as an RSS feed, how great is that? The folks at Findory say, “Findory is really easy to use: just click on the articles which interest you. We’ll do the rest. No signup, no complicated “configuration”. It just works.” They’re right – it does!
3) For the visual learner among us: WebBrain
If you are a visual learner, WebBrain is the search engine for you. WebBrain presents visualizations of searches and concept maps. The advantage is that you can see relationships between concepts quickly and easily without browsing through linear lists. It might be especially useful for students who have a broad topic to research and need to narrow it down but aren�t quite sure how to do so. Here�s an example of how it might work using my �global warming� example again.
1. I type in my search and wow�look at the top of the screen � a map of my concept with arrows shooting out of it!!
2. What do we have here? We have my term with aspects of it, for example �pollution�, and �Environment�.
3. The results for my search appear below the diagram. There are 2 sets: category matches and site matches. Category matches are sites that the people behind web brain have put into a subject directory while the site matches are results of searching the web.
4. You can also click on the words in the concept map to view results for those search terms. Note that the position of these terms around your main search term is relevant. For example, terms appearing above your search word are parent categories while those appearing below are subcategories.
It�s fun just to click on the search words that appear around your main search term and see the many related words fly around!
4) More fun with search: Mooter
Mooter is similar to WebBrain in that a concept map is employed to display your search word and related subject categories. You have the option of viewing �all results� for your search or only the results pertaining to the subcategories listed. If you don�t like the clusters presented you can view a different set, by clicking �Next Cluster�. When you are ready to view your results, click on a term. The results appear with the clusters listed on the left side in case you want to look at another subcategory as well. Like WebBrain, Mooter is useful if you have a broad topic to research and aren�t sure what aspect you�d like to dive into. It’s not as interesting to read about as it is to use, so give it a whirl!
5) The fun just does not stop: Visual Thesaurus
Like Mooter and WebBrain, the Visual Thesaurus uses a visual map to display your search results. Type in a word and a map displays synonyms for your word. The synonyms appear like branches from your word and you can mouse over the branch to see definitions. Similar words are clustered at the end of branches and you can click on these clusters to view synonyms of these words. Unfortunately, the Visual Thesaurus is not free but it does allow you some free trial searches to check it out.
6) Fun, fun, fun: Topic Map at Highwire Press
To access this Topic Map, you need to click on a tiny link in the centre of the High Wire Press home page under the heading �Browse Articles�. The text is: �Browse using TopicMap�. The TopicMap is worth the effort of hunting for this link! The first screen lists a series of broad scientific subject categories arranged in a circle. Click on a category to see a visual representation of subfields within that category. Click again to narrow further. It�s great fun but what is it used for? It�s very useful to narrow a topic. For example, if a student knows he would like to do a paper on a topic within neuroscience, he can drill down to find areas of study within the broad area of neuroscience (for example, memory.) There is also a useful search box to search for related fields.
Posted by librarybrainblog 
Posted by librarybrainblog 
