The only thing that I would add to this analogy is that some one has
described the World Wide Web as a library where someone has ripped off
all the covers and title pages and piled the books randomly in the
middle of the floor. I therefore think that Eve is being slightly too
kind to Google - unless her personal experience of Library Assistants is
that they indeed do that!
Andrew
Andrew Booth
Senior Lecturer in Evidence Based Healthcare Information & Director of
Information Resources
School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) University of Sheffield
Tel: 0114 222 0705 Fax: 0114 272 4095
Email: [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Evidence based practice to librarianship and information science
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Eve Hollis
Sent: 10 September 2004 11:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: google v medline
When attempting to teach some of my less gifted readers about searching
I
try to make analogies with the real world as opposed to the electronic.
I suggest the WWW is analogous to a huge open plan library, with shelves
of books and journals that anyone can come in and read. In order to
search this library you need Google the library assistant, to go and
find
where and what you want. However if what you want is in a locked area
then Google tells you to get a key (aka Athens authentication) as it is
not allowed in there.
The things concealed in the locked area are the things which are not
available in the open plan (obviously) so using different words to try
and
get Google to find them will not work.
Now if you reader is prepared to be satisfied with the amount of
information obtained by library assistant Google on the open shelves,
that
is their prerogative, and they don't know what they don't know. However
if they are hoping to have a comprehensive selection of the library
holdings then they will have to obtain a key and examine the things in
the
locked area.
In the case of Health libraries Google will not pick up the contents of
the literature databases such as CINAHL or EMBASE, unless those contents
are moved to the open shelves. PubMed is not the only database and it is
not comprehensive.
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