Things to Read Before Session
preynolds February 7th, 2007
 Before the session Developing Electronic Collections with Shrinking Budgets (doing more with less) It would be a good idea to read the following material.
- The Essentials of Google Search
- Advanced Operators
- Google Help : Cheat Sheet
- Frequently Asked Questions - File Types
- Google Web Search Features
- Search Results Page
- Labs.google.com, Google’s technology playground
A lot of this may seem like basic information that we all know but, Google changes features continually and it is often hard to keep up. When I last counted the Google services listed under “More Google†and under “Labs” I came up with seventy different products or services with fifty-two of those products being search related. How many of these are we really familiar with let alone their individual operators and capabilities? In their book Google Hacks Bausch, Calishain, Dornfest list hack #1 as being aware of and using the Google directory, #2 is Google Zeitgeist, #4 is the built in spell checker, #5 the Google Phone Book and the list goes on. The point is that just by studying the documentation and tools provided by Google we immediately become expert searchers compared to the vast majority of Internet users. This is where our customers are going.
A recent comparison of Cornell University reference librarians and Internet users on Google Answers showed reference librarians with their vastly larger collection of quality print and electronic information, years of experience, and professional training scored little better than the Internet users offering information on Google Answers. In addition to this, the librarians cost two to three times as much. The researchers seem to try to excuse these results by saying “A final point on the evaluations involves sources. Google researchers (as opposed to the librarians) are experts at locating hard-to-find information on the Web. Their answers, therefore, tend to be limited to freely available networked resources.†Is this an excuse or an insult?
Kenney, Anne R., Nancy Y. McGovern, Ida T. Martinez, and Lance J. Heidig. “Google Meets eBay What Academic Librarians Can Learn from Alternative Information Providers.” D-Lib Magazine Volume 9 Number 6June 2003 1-16. 06 Nov 2006.
It’s time for us to learn the ins and outs of search engines, web sites, “become experts at locating hard-to-find information on the webâ€. An easy way to acquire this knowledge is to remember the three P’s of becoming a search engine expert. Pick two or three search engines to use regularly. Print and study any help pages or documentation they provide. Practice using the various tools on a regular basis and incorporate them into your own research and into your work with others.
R Philip Reynolds
Research Education Librarian
Stephen F. Austin State University
Computer Science, History, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography
The Tao of Searching
http://tao-of-searching.blogspot.com/
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