Searcher articles from October 2002

Searcher archives from October 2002

Critical conditions. (Searcher's Voice).
October 1, 2002... Socrates once stated that his greatest claim to wisdom was that he did not think that he knew what he did not know. The prime wisdom--to Socrates--was the critical eye, the cautious and even skeptical examination of all knowledge and especially...

Confessions of a serial clicker: Ulrich's on the Web. (Internet Express).
October 1, 2002... Reference Librarian/System Manager San Marino Public Library In the mid-1980s, British financier Robert Maxwell jacked up the subscription rates for scientific journals published by his Pergamon Press to fantastic heights. He figured that...

Information for sale: my experience with Google Answers.
October 1, 2002... When your resume and business card say "freelance librarian" people are often interested in what you do for a living. Finding the right niche in a tough job market can be a challenge. When Google Answers started accepting applications for...

A call to action: what every searchers should know--and do--about domain names, standards, and metadata.
October 1, 2002... Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, there were no online services and no need to master arcane search interfaces. As we all know, Lockheed put an end to the ancien regime when it developed what became Dialog. And then, along came...

Patinformatics: identifying haystacks from space.
October 1, 2002... Generally, when individuals think about patent information they conjure up an image of a diligent searcher, poring over reams and reams of information, looking for the one reference out of hundreds, maybe thousands, that will satisfy their...

Specialized search engine FAQs: more questions, answers, and issues.
October 1, 2002... Last year in Searcher I wrote an article that provided an overview of the Web search scene as of Fall 2001 ["Web Search Engine FAQs: Questions, Answers, and Issues," October 2001, http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/oct01/price.htm]. I'm thrilled...

Right brain, left brain: the home offices of design and information professionals.
October 1, 2002... Finally, the negative image of the home office has shattered. The past few years of "creative" officing, corporate overhead off-loading, communications technology breakthroughs, as well as long-standing usage by consultants, architects, and...

The wisdom of the wizard: when and what and where to buy. (Tools of the Trade).
October 1, 2002... The P.N. Gwenne Company These days it seems like more and more technologies have advanced sufficiently to become indistinguishable from magic. Welcome to the "Magic Kingdom." More and more lately, I feel my "techie wizard" status...

An opportunity for the analytical librarian.
October 1, 2002... Content analysis can bring precision and accountability to some rough calculations needed for the anticipation and effective management of outside events. This age-old problem--a media content measurement--of clients and colleagues--sales and...

Cost cutting or access control: OMB dismantling GPO?(Office of Management and Budget; Government Printing Office)
October 1, 2002... Since 1813, people seeking federal government information have relied on depository libraries. In the earliest days, government documents were deposited in selected university and other libraries. The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP)...

Beyond the spider: the accidental thesaurus.(robotic crawlers search the Web)
October 1, 2002... Robot software can help us in many ways. It can also be stubbornly literal--and even foolish at times. Think of Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, blathering unnecessary minutiae endlessly when asked a simple historical or...