Anatomy of a netscam

[Laura B. Cohen]

As I see it, the problem with most Internet users of these large
subject databases and search engines is to accept that these
are leading to by and large quality sites in the first place.
The advertising issue is only the tip of the problematic iceberg.

Take Yahoo, for instance. Yahoo is merely the passive recipient
of sites submitted to it. Sure, there's a staff that places
the sites in (not always useful) subject categories, but that's
the beginning and the end of their quality control. From the point
of view of academic libraries and academic subjects, their
coverage is spotty at best. I did a study in the first quarter
of this year which included taking a look at 10,000 new sites
placed on Yahoo. What's coming on there? The vast, vast majority
of sites are commercial sites, personal home pages, recreational
sites, and sites of only local interest. The academically
substantive sites were few and far between, and not very good
ones at that. Since this represents the current demographics
of Yahoo, I teach everyone in my academic library to treat this site
with great caution. 

So for me, the problem is not so much that there is advertising
(deceptive or otherwise) supporting these sites, but whether
to use these sites for research in the first place. Every
last search engine and most (but not all) of the subject databases
are very mixed bags, and it's our job to teach this. I've placed
an increasing amount of information to this effect on my
library home page, train our library staff to this effect,
and teach this notion directly in my instruction sessions. Too
many of our patrons see the Internet as a glorified extension
of CD-ROM searching, with some kind of substance around every
corner. The substance is surely there, but it is painstaking
work to find it. I agree with Karen that it would be wonderful
if academia could create large, reliable subject databases.
Actually, there are small, rather reliable subject
databases out there, and perhaps this is the most we can
realistically expect. 

   -- Laura Cohen

          Laura B. Cohen
          Network Services Librarian
          University Libraries UL-140
          University at Albany   
          Albany, New York  12222          LCOHEN at CNSVAX.ALBANY.EDU