WorldCat.org has a new feature: search for an author, go to a detailed record of a book by that author, go down to the "Details" part of the record, and click the "Go" button beside "Find More information about..." the author's name. The resulting "Identities" record is a cool social network representation of the author. I've linked Erving Goffman's as an example.
Good papers increasingly turn up in the social-media networks, according to people in these focus groups. "They're even beginning to question peer review," Mr. Nicholas said. "They were honestly saying it's more important to contact and connect with loads of people than simply pay homage to one or two authorities."
The academic use of such tools may leave libraries out in the cold, he said. "There's a lot of soul-searching that needs to be done on the part of librarians, because this is their constituency."