Students use of search engines -Reply

[Steve Cramer]

"Are librarians encountering evidence that these disparate
protocols are contributing to end-users' confusion
concerning the correct way to search?"
Nicholas G. Tomaiuolo
__________________________
Whew! There's room for a few dissertations here.

I am *very interested* in how people are using the Web
search tools. I've tried to teach the complexity of searching
the Web in my "Intro to the Web class" (that topic takes
up one of the three hours of the class). After a 30 lecture
and demonstration, I handed out search questions that
illustrated some of the points I just made:
--since each search tool has a different database and
works differently, you often must use more than one
search tool to find the best information
---the differences between "directories" (Yahoo,
Magellan,...) and "search engines" (Alta Vista, OpenText,
Lycos...)
---the need to evaluate the search results instead of
immediately clicking on the first link in the list
etc.

The results: the students did surprisingly well (the students
have been teen-ages, college staff and faculty, and adults
from the general public). Most answered the questions
without too much time or difficulty, and few expressed
displeasure with the search-tool interface.

*On the other hand*, outside of the Internet training
seminar environment, I've noticed that *few* people who
use my college library (students and the general public)
take the time to learn about whatever search engine they
happen to be using (whether it's a Web search engine or a
periodical index on CD-ROM). They sit down and starting
typing keywords, without reading the FAQ, or seeing if
there is a subject index (for a CD-ROM), or even looking
at the concise, one-page hand-out written by a librarian
and displayed right next to the monitor. Because they don't
learn how a database works or what their option are, they
end up with a lousy search -- extremely low relevancy.
Garbage in, garbage out!

How can we convince our patrons that finding good
information takes a little planning and a little work?

Steve Cramer
Library, Davenport College of Business
Holland, Michigan USA
scramer at davenport.edu