The Crossroads of Academic Electronic Availability: How well does Google Scholar Measure up against a University-Based Metadata System in 2014?

Electronic availability of information resources has increasingly become an important part of everyday vocation of academic libraries. This puts impetus on the libraries to know more about the way in which electronic information is being dispersed and handled. The present article aims to comparatively evaluate Uppsala University library's own metadata system Summon with the free, publicly available equivalent Google Scholar (GS). The evaluation is based on Peter Jacso's theories on database evaluation which puts focus on Summon and GS via the use and application of ten different criteria. The uses of precision and relevance criteria were also implemented as additional evaluation tools. The results indicate that at present GS has to be seen as a necessary complement in retrieving electronic information due to the fact that Summon is not yet fully functioning on all levels and that GS has a wider intake of information sources. The use of web-based academic search tools is now vital. Will the open access movement evolve with Google as the main actor and take over the scene leaving costly databases and search tools behind? This article deals with the economic implications of comparing the practical functions of a costly in-house information system with a public equivalent. It reveals the complex situation that a world-class university is in as regards to information resources and the digitization and economic issues that follow.