A new company InfoFast (http://www.infofast.co.uk) has been getting
publicity (eg yesterday's Times -
http://www.the-times.co.uk/interface/insight/story873.html) for its paid
information service. Its trained 'human search engines' are able to use
'2,000-3,000
business databases unavailable to web surfers'. When a question about
proposed legislation could not be answered on the web the researcher called
a government department and obtained the necessary facts.
Gosh, how clever of them! Librarians have been doing all this for years, but
of course we don't get the publicity. So should the LA/IIS mount an
awareness campaign or should libraries offering information services to
business and the public go Web only and ensure the L word is not used?
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Ian Winship
Learning Resources, University of Northumbria at Newcastle
City Campus Library, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK
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e-mail: [log in to unmask]
phone: 0191 227 4150 fax: 0191 227 4563
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