Steve B HoltI hope the two guys that keep Google Scholar going as a pet project didn't get laid off. Just as a quiet reminder of the fragile contingency of this core academic service.
Albert Cardona@SteveBHolt Great point, about time that such core academic service is transferred back to university libraries where it belongs. For the time being, there’s https://scholar.archive.org (a charity organisation) which works pleasantly well, and doesn’t play the game of citations and h-index and similar rubbish metrics of academic performance, focusing instead on archiving and ensuring access to the papers.
Nemo_bis 🌈@albertcardona "transferred back to #university #libraries where it belongs"
Agreed, but how to prevent such a service from turning into another extractive monopolist like JSTOR or OCLC?
@nemobis Ensure an association of multiple public universities is in charge—so as to make it impossible, by committee, for it to change hands—and establish the charter with strong statutes that prevent such take over. Many charities have existed for centuries in one form or another. An academic library should be able to as well.
@albertcardona Do you know any example of this proposed structure?
So far the only successful publicly owned services I've seen in USA are owned and run directly by state universities.