anatomy of a netscam -Reply

[Wilfred [Bill] Drew]

KAREN SCHNEIDER wrote:
> 
> John Hogle summarized my thoughts on this issue.  I'd add that this
> points up once again the problems with relying on tools created by
> commercial services.  As long as we let "them" create these tools, the
> tools will reflect market forces and not the users' best interests.  While I
> use Yahoo daily, I'm aware that I'm being massaged, swayed, conditioned
> and manipulated--and I'm aware, as John points out, that most users are
> UNaware of this.  They see these indices as benevolent public services.
> We address this in training, but in addition to caveats we try to point
> people to the few noncommercial indices, such as the Berkeley Public
> Library index to the Internet.  Even better would be a resource on the
> scale of Yahoo that was created by public-service librarians on behalf of
> The People.

I usually find my self agreeing with Karen on most issues but must
disagree here.  What studies have been done to show that people are
unaware that they are being "massaged,swayed, conditioned, and
manipulated"?  I think its great that Yahoo and such services are being
supported by advertising.  It is obvious after while where the
advertising is located.  Also those that run so-called non-profit sites
also "massage,sway, condition, and manipulate" by deciding how a site is
indexed and by what index terms they choose.  Even the all holy Library
of Congress does that.
> 
> Who would do such a project?  Well,  OCLC has a project called Netfirst,
> which is currently free, but what bothers me is that it has been and later
> will be a fee-based resource.  That leaves our professional associations
> and the Library of Congress as key instigators of public, tax-funded
> indexing projects.  GILS and other projects are interesting, but they
> haven't taken off (though projects such as FedWorld are very useful
> within the framework of government resources). We haven't seen any
> other lead-the-fleet projects.  So what's the answer?

OCLC may legally be non-profit but don't think for a minute that they
won't drop a service that is not profitable or potentially profitable. 
Netfirst is also a very out-of-date database.  I have contacted OCLC
several times via e-mail about the record for my document Not Just Cows
which points to a dead site and also has the wrong title (a cataloger
didn't like the title Not Just Cows and just used the subtitle Guide to
Internet/Bitnet Resources in Agriculture and Related Resources -- real
quality control!!).   From what I understand GILS is still a
demonstation project and only covers governement information.

The obvious answer is to let the commercial services continue to do what
they are doing.  We need to teach our users to spot the advertising. 
They aren't stupid so don't treat them that way.
> 
> Karen G. Schneider/US EPA Region 2 Library/
> http://www.epa.gov/Region2/html/library/
> schneider.karen at epamail.epa.gov
> opinions mine alone

--
Wilfred Drew (Call me "Bill") Serials/Reference/Systems Librarian
SUNY College of Ag. & Tech.;   P.O. Box 902;  Morrisville, NY 13408-0902
Internet: DREWWE at SNYMORVA.CS.SNYMOR.EDU
Phone: (315)684-6055 or 684-6060 Fax: (315)684-6115 
Homepage: http://www.snymor.edu/~drewwe/
Not Just Cows Homepage: http://www.snymor.edu/~drewwe/njc/
LibraryLinks: http://www.snymor.edu/pages/library/
--