Bernhard Eversberg wrote:
> My advice was _not_ to leave end-users on their own to figure out
> what to do in a "zero hit" situation. My advice was just to avoid
> patronizing and anthropomorphic language. More directly: avoid all
> forms of personal address, questions, or even the word "please",
> not to mention "welcome" and nonsense like that.
> Try to present facts and suggestions in a neutral way, not in fact
> declared as "suggestions" - there is no one who has the capacity to
> issue suggestions in that setup. Not "Did you mean ..." but perhaps
> "Maybe worth a look, maybe not: ...". And of course not a dry
> "Sorry, your search found nothing" but something like
While I agree with you, I don't think we are going to change people's opinions concerning these machines, even setting aside Turing's opinions on the subject. (Supposedly, some machines have more or less passed the test)
The way I look at it though, anybody who is searching for information using a catalog or search engine needs help including librarians who know to turn to other experts when required Until people learned how to use it, they were more or less helpless using a card catalog without the help of a reference librarian. Key word searching a catalog hasn't made it much easier, and in fact, more difficult in some ways. And we all know the problems with Google.
The problem is: while *we* know the problems of Google, studies have shown that the majority of users think they are good or excellent searchers. And why not? They almost never get a zero hit, while they do all the time in a library catalog. On one list, I mentioned that the most heartbreaking thing I had seen in some time was on Google Trends, one of the big searches that week was "financial hope." I imagined to myself the feelings of the thousands of people sitting alone looking at the empty Google screen, without any help, typing "financial hope" into that box, and retrieving all of these hits from websites promising "financial hope."
People need help when they search for information, and they need to rely on people who follow a code of professional ethics. (Sounds like a librarian!) But unfortunately, people are all too often unaware of what they are missing, or what they are really looking at.
I don't know what the solution is, but first there must be a general awareness of the problem and a general agreement concerning its seriousness. Any solution probably will have to involve all the aspects of librarianship but certainly reference services will figure in very prominently The basic problem remains though: You could have the greatest searching help in the world, easy to use and so on, but how do you get this help to people who don't know the help exists in the first place, and who don't even realize they need the help? This is how I see the situation as it is now, and it will probably get worse in the future. The old cataloging paean of "If you have problems using the catalog, ask a librarian" does not work today, but people still need the help. It must be easier to know about and get the help than ever before.
I believe there are solutions, but it will demand some drastic reconsiderations.
Jim Weinheimer
Received on Mon Feb 23 2009 - 04:36:16 EST