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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Librarian As Hacker, Getting More From Google, R Philip Reynolds Nov 2007

The Librarian As Hacker, Getting More From Google, R Philip Reynolds

Librarian and Staff Publications

This paper will cover four areas. First it will discuss the research habits of search engine users and some of the problems with these habits. Then it will discuss librarians' use of search engines. Here we encounter the real question: Do we do much better? Can we use a search engines to their full potential? When needed, can we hack an engine to make it perform beyond its intended function? Can we use a clever workaround to solve a problem? Or are we on a level playing field with our patrons once we get outside traditional database searching? Google currently …


A Hard Rain's Agonna Fall, Mark Y. Herring Sep 2007

A Hard Rain's Agonna Fall, Mark Y. Herring

Dacus Library Faculty Publications

The June issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education showcased as its cover story the blaring headlines, “Should the Internet Be Scrapped?” Did this surprise anyone? If it did, you must not have been paying attention. Over the last decade, the Internet, the Web—yes, yes, I know the terms are technically not synonymous but have become so in usage—has become increasingly useless as a scholarly tool. The CHE story discussed the obvious problems: spam, viruses, unreliable connections, not to mention unreliable information, disinformation and even misinformation.


Online Postings Can Be Nightmare For Recruits: In Acting On Google Search Results, However, Law Firms Should Proceed With Caution, Michael D. Mann Jun 2007

Online Postings Can Be Nightmare For Recruits: In Acting On Google Search Results, However, Law Firms Should Proceed With Caution, Michael D. Mann

Michael D. Mann

No abstract provided.


Editorial: Shape Shifters: Librarians Evolve Yet Again In The Age Of Google, Mariana Regalado, Jill Cirasella Jun 2007

Editorial: Shape Shifters: Librarians Evolve Yet Again In The Age Of Google, Mariana Regalado, Jill Cirasella

Publications and Research

Like all organisms and organizations, librarians and libraries evolve by adapting to changes and pressures in their environments. From scroll to codex to online text: every upgrade in technology is matched by an adaptation in librarianship. Nevertheless, despite centuries of evolution, the activities of librarians and the mission of libraries have remained essentially constant and are still recognizable. The pace of change in libraries has been especially rapid since the introduction of computers, and an important recent change is the advent of the “age of Google.” Heralded by the arrival in 1998 of the Google search engine, with its clean …


You And Me And Google Makes Three: Welcoming Google Into The Reference Interview, Jill Cirasella Jun 2007

You And Me And Google Makes Three: Welcoming Google Into The Reference Interview, Jill Cirasella

Publications and Research

Library patrons often approach the reference desk with indirect, incomplete, or misleading questions, known as "ill-formed" questions. Transforming ill-formed questions into well-formed ones is a crucial part of the reference interview, and Google can be an active participant in that process. This paper discusses how Google can help librarians and patrons deal with incomplete citations, incorrect citations, incorrect spellings, tip-of-the-tongue questions, and forgotten searches.


Google's Law, Greg Lastowka Jan 2007

Google's Law, Greg Lastowka

Greg Lastowka

Google has become, for the majority of Americans, the index of choice for online information. Through dynamically generated results pages keyed to a near-infinite variety of search terms, Google steers our thoughts and our learning online. It tells us what words mean, what things look like, where to buy things, and who and what is most important to us. Google’s control over “results” constitutes an awesome ability to set the course of human knowledge. As this paper will explain, fortunes are won and lost based on Google’s results pages, including the fortunes of Google itself. Because Google’s results are so …


Google Sets, Google Suggest, And Google Search History: Three More Tools For The Reference Librarian's Bag Of Tricks, Jill Cirasella Jan 2007

Google Sets, Google Suggest, And Google Search History: Three More Tools For The Reference Librarian's Bag Of Tricks, Jill Cirasella

Publications and Research

This article examines the features, quirks, and uses of Google Sets, Google Suggest, and Google Search History and argues that these three lesser-known Google tools warrant inclusion in the resourceful reference librarian’s bag of tricks.


Hidden Resources Agricultural Journalists Can Find At Google, Joe Zumalt Dec 2006

Hidden Resources Agricultural Journalists Can Find At Google, Joe Zumalt

Joseph R. Zumalt

Resources within Google for agricultural journalists.