In my first classes of this semester, with doctoral/post-doctoral students from a variety of STEM disciplines, I began by asking them questions instead of simply lecturing, including provocative questions (Why isn’t there a global online library? Does it matter?). The students liked this.
I also asked the students to write for ten minutes about the difficulties they encounter when performing academic literature searches, and the results – while not surprising – confirm how hard it is for end users to understand why the online academic environment exists in its current form. Content here, content there, duplicated content…it defies logic.
Additional Reading
(2017). Sci-Hub provides access to nearly all scholarly literature. PeerJ Preprints 5:e3100v2 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3100v2
Houle, L. (2017). Google Scholar, Sci-Hub and LibGen: Could they be our New Partners? Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences. Paper 3. http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/iatul/2017/partnership/3
McKenzie, L. (2017). Sci-Hub’s cache of pirated papers is so big, subscription journals are doomed, data analyst suggests. Science News. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/07/sci-hub-s-cache-pirated-papers-so-big-subscription-journals-are-doomed-data-analyst