Shvoong : the worldwide abstracts - literature and science
Posted by Celia Walter | 10 Jul, 2008Shvoong : the worldwide abstracts site
'Shvoong', meaning 'momentum' in Yiddish', is a website which offers
abstracts whose aim is to 'summarize all that has been written
throughout human history in the areas of literature and scientific
research'. While this is unlikely to be achieved, this ambitious
project aims to reduce the search time spent by students, researchers
and others in locating the material they need. Each abstract may be
read in a format chosen by the reader, with a maximum of 300, 600 or
900 hundred words, and in a wide range of languages. The site also
reviews and abstracts the contents of the daily world press. The site
is a free resource, funded by advertising, which offers a fee based on
the number of readers for the writing and translating of new material.
Therefore, each reader is asked to rate the abstracts they use, thereby
maintaining the quality of the site's material. All abstract writers
are 'random surfers' and writing is submitted in all common languages,
with the option for immediate translation into 12 major languages. As
automatic translations can be of variable quality, human translators,
also surfers, will work to provide higher quality translations. The
site may be searched under the headings of 'Books', 'Science',
'Humanities', 'WWW' and 'Newspapers', and then by details of the text
and the level of abstract required. This is an unusual resource,
deliberately featuring text-only to minimise download time, which is
easily navigated and offers value to a wide range of researchers.
Intute.ac.uk
http://www.shvoong.com/