Recently I viewed a short YouTube video about “The Evolution of [Google] Search “and I started thinking about the last time I gave a Library presentation about our resources, services and staff. The video highlights the beginnings of Google which started as a research project in 1996 and how search has evolved. It includes such topics as universal results, quick answers, and the future of search. I understand the importance and value of improving the Google search algorithm – using a word, a combination of words, phrase, or an image to retrieve relevant results but I know that Google is still not always enough. This is the point I make when I give my presentation (Why the Library? Isn’t Google Enough?).
The fact is that sometimes users need to look at alternate resources to find the information they seek. Better yet, a trained reference librarian can bring value to the research results by identifying these alternate resources and showing how to leverage the various features each resource provides. Continue reading