Sex & the Search Engine

[Frances Roehm]

I agree with you about the importance of librarians in selecting
quality links. People depend on us to help them find their way
on the information highway!

BTW, AltaVista allows for the use of the minus sign. If you find a
large number of irrelevant hits centered around a theme, try
adding the minus to the search string.

	Example: +superbowl -lettuce  

Hope that helps!

Fran

Frances E. Roehm
Reference Librarian  
Skokie (IL) Public Library <http://www.skokie.lib.il.us>
Phone:(847) 673-7774  Fax:(847) 673-7797 
E-mail: roehf at skokie.lib.il.us

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On Fri, 23 Jan 1998, Alis Whitt wrote:

> 
> General search engines (such as HotBot, AltaVista) are becoming useless as
> information retrieval tools. I'd like to see a few search engines develop
> a "not" button which would eliminate all porn sites from the results list.

snip..........

>  Alis Whitt
>  whitta at cofc.edu
>  College of Charleston Library
> 
> On Fri, 23 Jan 1998 cadieux at librarybook.com wrote:
> 
> > Jan. 23, 1998
> > 
> > This morning I attempted a standard AltaVista search on "superbowl."
> > I queried for hits from 21/Dec/97 and later.
> > 
snip.....
> > 
> > The upshot: Search engine results are becoming LESS valuable, and
> > librarians who are finding, categorizing, and promoting useful, relevant
> > sites are becoming MORE valuable.  Generally speaking, librarians are
> > trusted by the public, and here is an opportunity to build on this trust.
> > 
> > Joseph Cadieux
> > Director
> > Kent Memorial Library
> > Suffield, Connecticut 06078
> > cadieux at suffield-library.org      
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
>