May be different in the UK but 'what do coots eat?' yields several
relevant results on the first page including the first hit - although I
feel that the second hit is even better as it is a Google Answer to the
question 'do american coots eat fish?' and references a detailed website
from the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.
Anyway, as has been stated seversl times, you aren't comparing like with
like.
For me it is more interesting to compare GBS or Amazon - as these are
both trying to answer the same (unspoken?) question you are posing in a
library catalogue - which is not 'what do coots eat?' but 'is there a
book which is likely to answer the question what do coots eat?'
Out of GBS, Amazon and OpenWorldcat only GBS manages to return relevant
results to the query 'what do coots eat?'
GBS has quite a few false positives, but on the first page of results it
includes "Exotic Animal Medicine for the Veterinary Technician" which
includes some information about feeding injured coots, and "A Natural
History of the Sonoran Desert" which states they eat acquatic plants and
animals. Worldcat for reasons that passeth my understanding returns "The
lady complete collection" - a CD compilation of Billie Holiday (maybe it
thinks that I need to kick back to some cool jazz vibes after all that
searching). Amazon just fails to return any results.
On the otherhand, search for 'coots--food' Worldcat outperforms the
others by some degree - returning several relevant results at the top of
the results. Amazon has quite a bit of noise, but the second hit is
"FOOD HABITS of the AMERICAN COOT With Notes on Distribution by John
Jones" - which is the top hit on Worldcat. GBS trails I think as
although most of the top hits are in the right area, they look to me
(without too close inspection) to not quite get to the heart of the
topic (although it does include a snippet from the "Wildlife Research
Bulletin" which reveals the percentage of animal in coot's food based on
analysis of stomach content). However, it should be noted that GBS
doesn't seem to include the John Jones book, so 'failure' here could be
a matter of collection rather than search - it's hard to say.
I haven't gone any further than this - but if we are going to have this
type of discussion lets try to look at resources trying to do the same
or similar things. Looking at full-text search vs metadata search for
books is much more interesting IMO, as it challenges us to think about
the future.
Owen
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Pons, Lisa (ponslm)
Sent: 29 January 2008 17:06
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Another Google adventure
When I typed in "Coot diet" in Google, the first result told me Coots
are omnivore's.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Martha Yee
> Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 11:25 AM
> To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: [NGC4LIB] Another Google adventure
>
> I know this is asking for trouble, but I can't resist sharing my
> latest Google adventure with you all. My husband and I were feeding
> stale bread to some coots on Echo Park Lake (in a neighborhood park
> near our house), when I was suddenly conscience-stricken at the
> realization that I didn't actually know if stale bread was good for
> coots. When I got home, I typed in to Google's famous search box
> "what do coots eat?"
> The reply that came back was a web site entitled "What do eagles eat?"
> In the list of eagle edibles was coots.
>
> In LCSH, the heading Coots--Food would give you perfect recall and
> precision for monographs wholly about what coots eat, if there were
> any. If this society placed a high value on universal employment
> (which it clearly doesn't), the heading Coots-Food would also bring up
> journal articles and papers that were wholly about what coots eat. We
> could even imagine a future in which correct RDF coding might allow a
> computer to translate the heading for a user who couldn't understand
> LCSH-ese into "food that coots eat."
>
> Just saying...
>
> Martha
>
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
>
> Martha M. Yee
> Cataloging Supervisor
> UCLA Film & Television Archive
> 1015 N. Cahuenga Blvd.
> Los Angeles, CA 90038-2616
> 323-462-4921 x27
> 323-469-9055 (fax)
> myee_at_ucla.edu (Email at work)
>
> Campus mail:
> 302 E. Melnitz
> 132306
>
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
>
>
> "You have a dollar. I have a dollar. We swap. Now you have my dollar
> and I have your dollar. We are not better off. You have an idea. I
> have an idea.
> We swap. Now you have two ideas and I have two ideas. Both are richer.
> When you gave, you have. What I got, you did not lose. That's
> cooperation"-Jimmy Durante quoted in Schnozzola, by Gene Fowler, 1951,
> p. 207-208.
>
>
Received on Tue Jan 29 2008 - 13:39:10 EST