CIL'06: Search Engines Vs. Libraries: The Role of Librarians on the Internet

Gary Price (a librarian)

• director of online resources at ask.com
• yes, there is a role for libs, but we have to speak up, LOUDLY!
• we can save peeps time, effort and aggravation, but we need to SHOW them...get in their faces...there are bigger and more haystacks out there
• info literacy is VIP
• a lot of services we consider "basic" are unknown to many users
• marketing and branding...tell people...word of mouth..."viral" marketing!
• SHOW people that libraries and librarians are important
• become the info "go to" people
• ask.com
• crawler-based engine
• pre-built Q&A model is gone
• zoom...query refinement
• image database
• maps...with driving and walking directions
• customize stuff on right hand side, or minimize