finding info on the Web

[Sally Fagan - Davenport College, Holland]

On Mon, 4 Dec 1995, Bill Crosbie wrote:

> Here is my fear... no it's more of a concern.  The WWW is a remarkable
> thing.  Simply fantastic.  But it also encourages a method of information
> retrieval that is innappropriate for the vast majority of information that
> is on the planet.  While this might not always be the case (recall  Vannevar
> Bush's memex), it is clearly present reality.  
> 
> So my question is - What is being done with this tool to assist people to
> get to information today?  Is anyone putting together a set of web based
> tools to teach people how to effectively search for information?  Are they
> on-line and in "final" format?  Could you point me to the URL?
> > 
I agree. Unfortunately, a lot of young people seem to think that finding 
the information they need on the 'net is much easier than finding info 
using traditional library resources (which now must include CD-Roms and 
OPAC's). In fact, there's a (otherwise very good) video series in which 
two pair of students need to find information about one of the planets 
for an oral report. One pair searches the web, finds the info quickly, and 
delivers a great presention. The other pair uses books (I assume they 
found the book via the OPAC), become very discouraged, and deliver a 
horrible presentation. The moral: students who do research on the web not 
only find higher quality information faster but present the information 
better.
On the other hand, a magazine article about searching databases/services 
once began, "How many times has someone told you there's an 
incredible amount of great information on the net, but that he or she can't 
find any of it?"

Anyway, the best article I've read about the complexity of searching the 
web is Martin P. Courtois et al, "Cool tools for searching the web: a 
perfomance evaluation", Online 19 (6) (current issue).

Steve Cramer
Davenport College of Business
Holland MI
fagans at mlc.lib.mi.us