Video: Dr. Joshua Schwimmer on Google Book Search
A few weeks ago I mentioned a post from Dr. Joshua Schwimmer about Google Book Search in which he described a time when it proved extremely useful in a clinical setting.
Google must have liked the positive exposure because they interviewed Dr. Schwimmer. The interview (just over two minutes) is embedded below.
If you’re reading this in an aggregator or via email, you may have to visit the site to view the embedded video above
Dr. Schwimmer’s blogs:
- Kidney Notes
- The Efficient MD
- Tech Medicine (Healthline)
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February 29th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
David,
Thank you for pointing out the video.
I like your blog but I’m always curious when you don’t/ why you don’t comment on the information you post.
Do you see anything critical in the video? Is Dr. Schwimmer’s search example of “flesh eating disease” typical of most searches?
What type of search is that by the way?
Dean
February 29th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Hi Dean-
The previous post on this topic was explicit in mentioning that I have found Google Book Search useful and that I don’t yet understand why some libraryfolk get bent out-of-shape about it.
In this video, Dr. Schwimmer again relates his experience and his positive view of Google Book Search’s usefulness to clinicians. That a physician holds this view and expresses it on video for Google is, in itself, worthy of mention and sharing.
But I might just as well ask why you sometimes post items with just a couple of descriptive remarks. Recent examples include Web 3.0 as “Global Information Commons’ and We need librarian aerobics 1.0.
But you and I have been over this ground before. I believe that there is significant value simply in pointing out interesting items and resources and am selective about the topics on which I editorialize. Your beliefs differ. That’s great, though- viva la difference! I don’t have to agree with you in order to enjoy your blog and recommend it to others. What fun would the blogosphere be without a variety of perspectives?
February 29th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
My apologies, Dean. You asked questions I failed to answer. You asked:
Is Dr. Schwimmer’s search example of “flesh eating disease” typical of most searches?
I have no way of knowing- there’s no data available to indicate what is or isn’t typical.
As for what type of search it is, I’m not sure what you’re asking. If you run the search shown in the video in Google Book Search, you’ll see the results Dr. Schwimmer saw.
February 29th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
David,
I am just trying to figure out how you view this video. It seems to me that the crux of the matter is that when Dr. Schwimmer was searching for necrotizing fasciitis he was doing a “known-item” search – ‘a needle in a haystack’. He knew exactly what he was looking for including the book title and author.
I am diggin’ the fact that we have this capability but can’t imagine other than browsing and pinpoint searching where GBS would be useful.
C’est tout
Dean
February 29th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
As I wrote in my first post about Google Book Search (linked in the first sentence of the post above), that was my experience as well. I was thinking of a particular passage from Strunk and White’s Elements of Style and was able to pull up the passage in seconds.
I found that pretty significantly useful. In similar circumstances, I’d certainly try it again.
February 29th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
This East Coast / West Coast library bloggers rivalry is getting intense! I’m now afraid to attend Wii tournaments for fear a getting caught in the crossfire.
Peace out, blawgs!
March 1st, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Mark-
Huh?
-David
March 1st, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Sorry. Just a failed reference to the East coast/ West coast hip hop feud of several years ago.
Wikipedia Hip Hop rivalry entry