Could Google/Google Scholar provide Librarians with a new opportunity to
promote quality searching amongst users.
From the onset it must be made clear that Google is not the oracle of all
knowledge. Additionally, it must be accepted that it is used as a first and
sometimes last port of call by users.
Therefore, why not use Google as the first step in inculcating the practice
of information search and retrieval in users.
Google has its own search syntax that allows boolean and phrase searching,
much the same in concept (though not syntax) as other more specialised
databases such as Medline.
Surely, by showing users how to build a search in Google to glean accurate
results could wet the appetite (with the necessary guidance by Librarians)
to venture into the more subject specific databases (e.g. Medline).
Would this approach help to integrate Google (and any other search engine
that may emerge to compete) into the formal structure of user search
education.
Just a thought
Andy
Andy Prue
Web Development Librarian
LISSU,
Woodland House,
Pembury Hospital,
Pembury,
Kent, TN2 4QJ
Tel: 01892 - 823535 ext. 3160
email: [log in to unmask]
URL: http://stlis.thenhs.com/hln
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"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a
dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle
ground between light and shadow - between science and superstition. And it
lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is
the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call The Twilight
Zone".
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