At library school, I was taught the concept of nested boolean. In particular, I was taught a particular search strategy which goes like this.

Google Scholar is increasingly becoming a subject that an academic librarian cannot afford to be ignorant about. Various surveys have shown usage of Google Scholar is rising among researchers, particularly beginning and intermediate level researchers.  Our own internal statistics such as link resolver statistics and views of Libguides on Google Scholar, tell a similar story.

I have been recently thinking of the types of expertise academic librarians have and how recent trends in academic librarianship have made things harder.

Every librarian worth his salt knows that despite the rise of web scale discovery services, Google and Google Scholar are often the go-to tools of researchers. In particular, while we prefer to direct our users to the official published version, we know that any free copy will often work in a pinch and Google Scholar in particular is the #1 tool out there to look for free copies floating on the web.

Almost 4 years ago in 2010, I posted A few heretical thoughts about library tech trends. I was sceptical about QRcodes, Mobile websites and SMS reference.

Is known item searching really a big issue in Web Scale discovery? Since I began looking at web scale discovery in 2009-2010, I've read many librarians comment on how known item search is harder in web scale discovery and it's not just the rank and file librarians.

In my last post, I mused about blue ocean strategies and how libraries should consider spending time focusing more on blue ocean strategies. I gave the example from the book of the declining Circus industry and how Cirque du Soleil changed the rules of the games.

Curious about academic librarianship in Singapore as a career? Try So you want to be a academic librarian in Singapore? Even though the Day in the life of a librarian project by by Bobbi Newman has ended, I have decided to continue this tradition to post about my day to day work every January. I've was told that my blog posts are useful as a snapshot of the type of work academic librarians do in Singapore.

Library web scale discovery systems are great. They break down the silos between books , articles and other content types. They provide the "one-search" box experience that our users claim to want. But problems exist (See my overview - 8 things we know about web scale discovery systems in 2013  and outstanding issues ). In my experience, one of the most sticky issues is the question of getting relevant results.

I like to question why. I don't believe the status quo or the way things are is always the best that is possible. I ask why. I agitate for change. I try new things.  But after over almost 7 years of working on various projects and initiating various changes,  "the way things are" have started to slowly shift to what I had a hand in deciding or at least help guide thinking in - in some areas at least.

As part of a new goal to start reading sources outside the library world for ideas, I have been reading Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant and I must say it is surprisingly insightful. For those unfamiliar with the concept, blue ocean strategy contrasts with red ocean strategy, where firms in the industry compete head-on among traditional lines.