Follow up to Research Guidance...

[Sheryl Dwinell]

I think a lot of us were ruffled by your comments, particularly because
we've seen lots of great research oriented sites out there. I don't think
anyone wants to stifle your creativity. I certainly don't. My problem with
your statements is that it seems hard for me to believe that you've looked
at many of the library websites in the U.S. Try the major research
universities for a start. I don't know about you, but I seem to find lots
of links to the sort of resources you are talking about. We have links to
LOCIS, Medline, UN, and many others on our site. As you say, no library can
be exhaustive and we point folks towards places where they can find more
resources. We also teach classes on campus on using and searching the
Internet. We teach courses on how to do research. There are lots of
libraries that do this. Sometimes libraries don't have the time or manpower
to construct many pages of research guidance as you suggest. They may have
to point to resources at other institutions. When I look at library web
sites I view them with the thought that they were constructed primarily for
their own patrons and secondarily for the world at large. You might find
those sites lame, but you may not know what they do within their
institution to provide Internet guidance. I think your efforts are
well-meaning, but I think if you made a more exhaustive search of library
websites in the U.S. you may find that many of them are doing exactly what
you're proposing. I've looked at your site and you've done a lot of work,
but most of the information I've found there is similar to what I've found
at many library sites.  

>The strongest words come from Wilfred Drew: "I don't understand the point of 
>your site."
>Mr Drew created one of the definitive starting places for agriculture 
>research online: a guidebook called  "Not Just Cows". This guide belongs on 
>the websites of most agricultural libraries in the world.

I agree it's a great site, and maybe it should belong on the Web sites of
ag libraries, but that's a collection development decision. The best you
can do is make them aware of the site and then it's up to the library to
link to it. You could develop your own 'research guidance' site and find
that few libraries link to it. 

>Of course libraries publish their own card catalogue - and are responsible 
>for many of the best tools for effective research online... This is not the 
>same thing as providing research guidance from their website.

Again, what exactly do you mean by research guidance. I've seen library
sites where they give very detailed information about how to use resources,
both print and online. I've looked at your site and again, I don't see much
there that I haven't seen already done at other library sites. So, I'm just
not sure what you're getting at exactly. Are you talking about providing
links to the 'best' research sources on the Net or are you talking about
providing guidance or steps to conducting research on the Net. As I said,
I've seen both approaches.

>Most libraries will wait till CARL or UMI come out with a commercial product 
>to guide patrons through research online. Is there room for someone like 
>myself to come in early, and under, to start the market?

There's plenty of room for anyone to do pretty much anything they want on
the Net. You can develop your site and then shop it around to the libraries
of the world. I do wonder, however, what sort of commercial product you
think that UMI or CARL would develop to solve the 'research guidance'
problem. Are you talking about one source that would provide exhaustive
listings of the 'best' places for folks to conduct research? I'm a little
confused. 

Sheryl Dwinell * Cataloger/DBM Librarian/Webmaster
Memorial Library * Marquette University
P.O. Box 3141 * Milwaukee, WI 53201-3141
414-288-3406 * dwinells at vms.csd.mu.edu