Sex & the Search Engine

[Cramer, Steve]

An advanced AltaVista search for "title:superbowl" and
"url:superbowl" retrieved only relevant sites (well, there was
a superbowl of ping-pong, too). Users could also use Yahoo or
some other search directory to find "real" superbowl content,
too.

I absolutely agree with Mr. Cadieux's promotion of
librarianship. However, there *is* great value in search
engines, as long as users know how to use them intelligently
and critically. *User education*, therefore, is another
valuable service we offer to Internet users.

Steve Cramer
Reference Librarian
Perkins Library
Duke University
scramer at mail.lib.duke.edu

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<<"This morning I attempted a standard AltaVista search on
"superbowl." I queried for hits from 21/Dec/97 and later.

For "superbowl" none of the top 5 sites had anything
significant to do with this year's superbowl.  Two of the top
five hits were sites offering subscriptions to nude picture
archives.
<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