Everybody Google
posted 04/21/03
As an experiment, I did a search on Google for the word "library." Google has become the search engine of choice for many, because it reportedly indexes more of the web than any other. I do not pretend to understand how search engines work; I have a vague grasp of the difference, in theory, between an engine (spiders and crawlers and the like) and a directory (like Yahoo!). However, the advent, several years ago, of fee-based ranking of hits on most of the sites defeated my understanding. My knowledge now is rooted in purely empirical data.
What interested me in this experiment is that, even with the many potential uses of the word "library," the top hits are all relevant to the concept of library as I mean it. They included (at 10:56 pm on Sunday, April 20, 2003):
The Library of Congress
... Office National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program logoNational
Digital Preservation Program o About the Library o Visit / Tour ...
Description: Extensive online exhibitions of historic photographs and documents. Includes the American Memory Historic... Category: Recreation > Antiques > Photographs
www.loc.gov/ - 14k - Cached - Similar pages
If you have never visited the Library of Congress website, be prepared to be pleasantly surprised at the accessibility of this portal to our national library.
Internet Public Library
... The Internet Public Library is a public service organization and a learning/teaching
environment at the University of Michigan School of Information. ...
Description: Online public library features directories of online texts, newspapers, magazines, reference materials...
Category: Arts > Literature www.ipl.org/ - 8k - Cached - Similar pages
I have a personal fondness for the IPL; when I was in library school in the mid-1990s, I was one of the very first virtual reference librarians in their pilot project.
The WWW Virtual Library
Agriculture Agriculture, Gardening, Forestry, Irrigation... ... Copyright
© WWW Virtual Library, 1994-2003. Last update: Mar 22 2003.
Description: An expert-run catalog of sections of the web.
Category: Computers > Internet > Searching > Directories > Non-Commercial
vlib.org/ - 7k - Cached - Similar pages
Another good online library reference site.
THE BRITISH LIBRARY
- The world's knowledge
You are in the British Library website. ... Click here to skip to content British Library
logo, About us, Collections, Catalogues, Services, What's on, News, Contact us. ...
Description: Official depository of the United Kingdom and one the largest research institutions in the world....
Category: Reference > Libraries > Research
www.bl.uk/ - 17k - Cached - Similar pages
The UK's equivalent of the Library of Congress.
US National Library of Medicine
The National Library of Medicine (NLM), on the campus of NIH in Bethesda,
Maryland, is the world's largest medical library. ... Text Version. ...
Description: The world's largest medical library. It collects materials in all major areas of the health sciences...
Category: Society > Issues > ... > Health Policy > United States Government
www.nlm.nih.gov/ - 8k - Cached - Similar pages
Hosted by the National Institutes of Health, this comprehensive resource includes access to PubMed/MEDLINE, an index to articles on health-related topics.
THOMAS -- US Congress on the Internet
The Library of Congress. ... Presidential Nominations 100th - 108th. Treaties 90th
- 108th. The Library of Congress, Contact Us, Please Read Our Legal Notices.
Description: An official source of United States Federal Legislative information.
Category: Society > Law > Reference > Legal Research
thomas.loc.gov/ - 10k - Cached - Similar pages
The section of the Library of Congress Web site that allows the user to search bills pending and passed in the current session of the Legislature.
LibrarySpot.com: Encyclopedias, maps, online libraries, ...
Find the best library and reference resources at LibrarySpot.com, including top
dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers, maps, quotations and much more. ...
Description: Reference collection including dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers, maps, reading lists, and quotations.
Category: Reference > Directories
www.libraryspot.com/ - 29k - Cached - Similar pages
Yet another general reference collection.
ALA | Home
The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library association
in the world, with more than 64,000 members. ... AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. ...
Description: The ALA is the oldest and largest library association in the world. Includes association information,...
Category: Reference > Libraries > ... > North America > United States www.ala.org/ - 33k - Cached - Similar pages
The American Library Association website is one that I use often; it includes good information on library practices and policies, as well as links to the latest on time-sensitive topics such as the USA-PATRIOT Act.
So, whether Google is magic or logarithmic, it seems to work, and it has quickly become so ubiquitous that to Google is actually a verb in William Gibson's new novel Pattern Recognition. I even successfully Googled myself, the ultimate in ego inflation. Everybody Google!
Lauren Stara
Director, San Juan Island Library
phone number 360.378.2798
e-mail lstara@sjlib.org
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