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"Some people say that librarians will become obsolete. Apparently, everyone in the future will search for their information on Google instead of coming in to the library. Well, people may search on Google, but I doubt they'll find what they're looking for. Believe me, there will be a need for intelligent individuals who know how and where to look in order to find the relevant answers."
"How do I know this, you may ask? Why, I simply look at the search phrases that bring people to this site."
I used to love watching the Excite Search Voyeur (not available anymore), which was a real time listing (I think it came in the form of a java applet) of the searches that people were plugging into Excite. During a break on one of the presentations I was doing, I set up Voyeur to run, with a note that said, "This is how your patrons are using Excite". Sad. Really sad.
Posted by Steven at August 1, 2003 09:33 PM | TrackBackSouthwest's inflight magazine included an interview with Google's VP of product management, Jonathan Rosenberg, which contained the following remember-worthy quote:
"My dad is a Stanford professor, and one of the problems he has with his students is they do so much of their work on Google, they don't have a good understanding of where some of the underlying information comes from. In one sense, this is a very positive development, instant access to the world's knowledge. Alternately, I think that if people don't take the time to understand the underlying role of libraries and other information systems, then they don't get the full depth of a foundation on which to perform research. Yes, I think Google has changed the way people access information, and we want to make more of that information available, but not as a complete substitute for getting into the bowels of library stacks and card catalogs."Posted by: Lis on August 2, 2003 12:11 PM