Previous Library of Congress: Laws Need Revision to Encourage Digital Preservation |
Next |
July 15, 2008, 12:36 PM ET
Search Engine, ChunkIt, Marketed to College Students
A new search engine from TigerLogic Corporation, of Irvine Calif., is being pushed to scholars and researchers, among others. Called, ChunkIt, the search engine refines results from other search engines and databases, and displays chunks of text surrounding the key words.
In one of the company’s promotional videos, shown below, a stressed-out college student uses ChunkIt to narrow a search on the Russian Revolution via the Lexis/Nexis database. The student sports an Oberlin College sweatshirt and gripes about meeting a deadline for a research paper in two hours.
Steven J. Bell, a research librarian at Temple University, picks apart the video on a blog from the Association of College and Research Libraries, noting that it gives short shrift to the skills of librarians. He questions why the student would need ChunkIt to refine his search when Lexis/Nexis already has tools available to narrow search results. His conclusion? ChunkIt is appropriate for use with other search engines like Google, but not with library databases.—Andrea L. Foster
Categories: Research
Add Your Comment
Commenting is closed.