[WEB4LIB] RE: URL Promotion, Placement Purchasing

[Theodore E. Drake]

At 2:10 PM -0800 11/10/98, Rod Stroud wrote:
>It may not be long away that University consortiums fund their own search
>engines where it is exactly known how the algorithms work - there may be no
>other alternative.
>

I'd agree 100% Rod, IMHO this is something librarians should and must do.
And, since we don't need dozens of such search engines it's an ideal area
for resource sharing.

A model such as The Librarians' Index to the Internet
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/InternetIndex/  which is supported in part by
Federal Library Services and Technology Act funding, administered by the
California State Library is an excelent starting place. The Librarians'
Index to the Internet is a searchable, annotated subject directory of
morethan 4,100 Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for
their usefulness to the public library user's information needs. It's meant
to be used by both librarians and non-librarians as a reliable and
efficient guide to described and evaluated Internet resources. Their search
engine is now in place, as are the subject terms. They have recruited and
trained librarians from around California and there are currently 68
librarians on the LII Indexing Team. Check out their Behind the Scenes page
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/InternetIndex/behind.html  for a look at how
they are maintaining the Index.

INFOMINE  http://lib-www.ucr.edu/  INFOMINE currently enjoys participation
from librarians at all nine University of California campuses and Stanford
University and is another good example of a mulitiple-campus, shared
Internet resource collection project.

If we work together on a national level then perhaps librarians can bring
order out of the chaos of information ovreload. It wouldn't be the first
time ;-)



t.e.d.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Theodore E. Drake, Ed.D.                 tdrake at tcjc.cc.tx.us
Director of Library Services            Voice (817) 515-4513
Jenkins Garrett Library                      Fax   (817) 515-5726
Tarrant County Junior College
Ft. Worth, TX 76119
http://www.tcjc.cc.tx.us/south/library/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~