[WEB4LIB] Re: In defense of stupid users

[Karen Coyle]

Patricia,

I hope that when you teach the use of A9 you include a segment on 
privacy issues. A9 stores a user's searches on its server, and if you 
use your Amazon account (i.e. you have an Amazon cookie), then A9 
correlates your searches and your Amazon purchases. That means that your 
searches can be connected to your name and address, which you have given 
to Amazon along with your credit card information.  In this sense, using 
A9 is significantly different, from a privacy point of view, from using 
a library resource, or even using a resource licensed by a library. I 
highly recommend reading, and advising library users, to read the A9 
privacy policy:

http://a9.com/-/company/privacypolicy.jsp

If we in libraries are going to point users to resources, we have to 
make sure that they are fully informed.

kc

Patricia F Anderson wrote:

>Hi, Jimm et al,
>
>On Thu, 5 May 2005, Jimm Wetherbee wrote:
>
>  
>
>>It more than just the simple interface that Google and its ilk provide,
>>however.  With Google one can be pretty much assured that whatever the topic
>>he or she will find something and often enough in more than one format. How
>>many times have we seen a patron search for a journal article on the online
>>catalog or worse, use the wrong database for an article?  The problem is not
>>all of our making, but we seem to be stuck between federated searches which
>>seem especially slow and tend to diminish the qualities of individual
>>databases or presenting patrons with a vast array of individual databases.
>>    
>>
>
>I'm hearing a lot about Google or the library in this discussion, but 
>there is a lot more available for web searching than Google. What about 
>the federated web search engine, a9?  I am teaching two sessions next week 
>of an advanced web searching course for faculty. A9 and its federated 
>searching options is going to be very prominent in this task-focused 
>2-hour class.
>
>For those who don't already know, you might be interested to hear that the 
>A9.com search engine is now offering user-controlled meta-search 
>capabilities, including for library catalogs. Libraries who have already 
>configured the capability for their users include the British Library, NUI 
>in Galway Ireland, and the Seattle Public Library.
>
>A9 has always offered a simpler kind of federated search, offering 
>Google/Alexa web results along with Google:Images and Amazon:BookSearch 
>and Answers.com. Now they have made it possible for people to create their 
>own "column" and for people to share these with each other. A few days ago 
>they had 50-some columns available, today it is 171.
>
>To test it out yourself, follow these steps.
>
>(1) Go to <http://www.a9.com/>
>
>(2) Register or sign in as an Amazon customer (assuming you have made
>purchases from Amazon).
>
>(3) Return to A9 home. On the righthand side of the screen click on the
>bright green text that says:
>
>   NEW Add Columns to
>   your Search Results
>
>(4) Explore these, click on ADD to include an option in your personal
>settings.
>
>(5) Try a search; click on the buttons on the righthand side to activate a
>search in that area. For my course demo, I currently have selected:
>
>Web Images Books Reference PubMed HealthTopics HealthDirectory Yellow 
>Pages Pretrieve Wikipedia Creative Commons Koders theCurity WebDevRef.com 
>Wesbran.com MSDN Safari ITPapers.com ThinkGeek Acronym Top Blogs 
>blogs.feedster Blogdigger Blogwise Flickr WebshotsPhotos BritishLibrary 
>BLCatalogue NUIGalway RedLightGreen SPL Movies IndeedJobs
>
>You can manipulate the same search without retyping by simply clicking a
>button ON or OFF.
>
>I expect people to ask if we will create a column for searching our 
>own library collections. I've already had someone ask me if we could get a 
>'column' added for ERIC. I'd like one for the FDA databases. There are 
>lots of options that would be very helpful.
>
>For myself, I use these the same way most patrons use federated search 
>engines -- find out where the most helpful results are and then pop over 
>to that site and really dig. One of my favorite uses, as a medical 
>librarian, is to have web results in one column, Images next, SearchInBook 
>in the second (and I use these to decide what to get from the library), 
>and PubMed in the third (journal articles I might want.) The students I've 
>shown this find it really cuts the time it takes to write a term paper.
>
>Talk about 'easy', 'empowering the user', 'what will we do when Google 
>Print is really going' ... we are already there, in a sense. Start 
>teaching a9 now, show people how to integrate what it finds with what is 
>available in the library, and integrate library and web in a very powerful 
>way.
>
>My $.02 worth ...
>
>Patricia Anderson, pfa at umich.edu
>
>
>
>  
>

-- 
-----------------------------------
Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
kcoyle at kcoyle.net http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
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