This study investigates the efficiency of the Google search engine at retrieving items from 26 UK Institutional Repositories, covering a wide range of subject areas. One item is chosen from each repository and four searches are carried out: two keyword searches and two full title searches, each using both Google and then Google Scholar. A further search tests the retrieval of the item from the repository interface. Known information-seeking behaviour was taken into account when interpreting the results. These show that the Google and Google Scholar user would retrieve items from the repositories, particularly when the full title was known. However, some skill would be needed to evaluate the different versions of texts retrieved, and accessing the repositories through more sophisticated harvesting services might prove a better option for the scholar.
Berlin 3 Conference on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2005) Recommendation. URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.zim.mpg.de/openaccess-berlin/recommendation.html
2.
Brophy, P. , Markland, M. , Griffiths, J. R. and Booth, H. (2004a) EDNER+: Formative Evaluation of the Information Environment: Evaluation of IE Presentation Services (Deliverable 4, EDNER+ Project). Manchester: CERLIM (The Centre for Research in Library & Information Management) . URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.cerlim.ac.uk/projects/iee/reports/wp4_user_testing.doc
3.
Brophy, P. , Fisher, S. , Bentley, J. C. , Griffiths, J. R. and Markland, M. (2004b) EDNER: Formative Evaluation of the Distributed National Electronic Resource: Stakeholder Consultation and Analysis-Information Usage in Higher Education (Deliverable MDA 3a, EDNER Project). Manchester: CERLIM (The Centre for Research in Library & Information Management) . URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.cerlim.ac.uk/edner/dissem/a3a.doc
4.
Budapest Open Access Initiative (2003) URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml
5.
Cranfield QUEprints URL (consulted November 2005): http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/
6.
Craven, J. and Griffiths, J. R. (2002) ‘30,000 Different users, 30,000 Different Needs? The Design and Delivery of Distributed Resources to the User Community’ , in P. Brophy , S. Fisher and Z. Clarke (eds), Libraries Without Walls: The Delivery of Library Services to Distant Users: Proceedings of the 4th Libraries Without Walls Conference, 14-18 September 2001. London: Facet.
7.
Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA). URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/index.jsp
8.
ePrints UK Project. URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.rdn.ac.uk/projects/eprints-uk/
9.
Glasgow Daedalus Project. URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.lib.gla.ac.uk/daedalus/index.html
10.
Harnad, S. (2005a) ‘The Implementation of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access: Report on the Berlin 3 Meeting Held 28 February-1 March 2005, Southampton. UK’ , D-Lib Magazine11 (3). URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march05/harnad/03harnad.html
11.
Harnad, S. (2005b) ‘Fast-Forward on the Green Road to Open Access: The Case Against Mixing Up Green and Gold’ , Ariadne42-42 . URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/harnad/intro.html
12.
Harnad, S. and Brody, T. (2004) ‘Comparing the Impact of Open Access (OA) vs. Non-OA Articles in the Same Journals’ , D-Lib Magazine10 (6). URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june04/harnad/06harnad.html
13.
Harnad, S. , Brody, T. , Vallieres, F. , Carr, L. , Hitchcock, S. , Gingras, Y. , Oppenheim, C. , Stamerjohanns, H. and Hilf, E. (2004) ‘The Access/Impact Problem and the Green and Gold Roads to Open Access , Serials Review30 (4): 310-314 . URL (consulted November 2005): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.serrev.2004.09.013
14.
Hitchcock, S. , Brody, T. , Gutteridge, C. , Carr, L. and Harnad, S. (2003) ‘The Impact of OAI-based Search on Access to Research Journal Papers’ , Serials16 (3): 255-260 .
15.
Institutional Archives Registry. URL (consulted November 2005): http://archives.eprints.org/
16.
Markland, M. (2005) ‘Does the Student’s Love of the Search Engine mean that High Quality Online Academic Resources are being Missed?’ , Performance Measurement and Metrics16 (1): 19-31 .
17.
Markland, M. and Brophy, P. (2004) EDNER+: Information Environment Formative Evaluation: User testing of SPP Beta Portals (Deliverable Z2) in support of the EDNER+ Project, Manchester: CERLIM (Centre for Research in Library & Information Management) . Unpublished report.
18.
Markland, M. and Brophy, P. (2005) SHERPA Project Evaluation, Final Report. Manchester: CERLIM (Centre for Research in Library & Information Management) . URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.cerlim.ac.uk/projects/sherpa/final-report-august.doc
19.
Oxford ePrints. URL (consulted November 2005): http://eprints.ouls.ox.ac.uk/perl/search/advanced
20.
SHERPA Project Homepage. URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/index.html
21.
Suber, P. (ed.) (2005) Open Access News. URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.surf.nl/download/country-update2005.pdf
22.
Van Westrienen, G. (2005) ‘Making the strategic case for institutional repositories. Completed questionnaires. Country update on academic institutional repositories’ , CNI-JISC-SURF Conference, Amsterdam10-11 May 2005. URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.surf.nl/en/download/country-update2005.pdf
23.
Van Westrienen, G. and Lynch, C. A. (2005) ‘Academic Institutional Repositories: Deployment Status in 13 Nations as of Mid 2005’ , D-Lib Magazine11 (9). URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september05/westrienen/09westrienen.html
24.
White Rose Consortium ePrints Repository. URL (consulted November 2005): http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/
