Web Search
Source: Consumer Web Watch/Consumers Union
Full-Text Report, False Oracles: Consumer Reaction to Learning the Truth About How Search Engines Work
Here are the major findings of this study:
1. Most participants had little understanding of how search engines retrieve information from the Web or how they rank or prioritize links on a results page.

2. The majority of participants never clicked beyond the first page of search results as they had blind trust in search engines to present only the best or most accurate unbiased results on the first page. As a result, two-in-five links (or 41%) selected by our participants during the assigned search sessions were paid results.

3. Once enlightened about pay-for-placement, each participant expressed surprise about this search engine marketing practice. Some had negative, emotional reactions.

4. All participants said paid search links on search and navigation sites were often too difficult to recognize or find on many sites, and the disclosure information available was clearly written for the advertiser, not the consumer. Search engine sites that were perceived to be less transparent about these related disclosures lost credibility amongst this group of online consumers.
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A comment or two. Although the engines themselves have done a better job of labeling “paid” material, this report shows consumers need more. Perhaps this is an opportunity for the library community to do more in terms of education on how to best use “open web” search tools. This would also give us the opportunity to explain that we have the tools (databases, books) and the skills (most important) to offer the searcher material that is NOT accessible via any web engine in a very timely manner. More and more material is now being crawled but for many, as this report points out, it’s only “visible” if it appears on the first page of results. Or, in info sci terms, the universe of material in the database is increasing without the proper tools to get the data out or by developing more sophisticated search strategies (increased recall/lowered precision)
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Also, while the second major finding is not a surprise (most people only look at the first results page) it is nevertheless alarming. One thing that might help is to increase the number of results reported on a results page. All engines allow you to customize the number of results returned (check the preferences page). By default, most engines return only 10 results. What’s most interesting is not only do people look at a few results they’re only searching with an average two search terms without the assistance of any controlled vocabulary.

Internet Filtering
U.S. Supreme Court’s CIPA Decision: The Editorials
Since last Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court Decision many newspapers have published editorials about the decision. What follows is a roundup with direct links to about 25 editorials.

* Allentown Morning Call…“Library filters to block e-pornography; a common-sense approach to Internet”
* Arizona Republic…“Filtering the Web”
* Austin American-Statesman…“Web filters welcome, but kids will find holes”
* Chicago Tribune…“Filtering Free Speech”
* Christian Science Monitor…“Blocking Porn at Libraries”
* [Denver] Rocky Mountain News…“Why is Congress bossing libraries?”
* Des Moines Register…“Don’t censor libraries”
* Detroit Free Press…“Justices fail to side with free speech in two cases”
* Eugene Register-Guard…“Unfiltered justice: Libraries told to block porn or give up grants”
* Indianapolis Star…“Libraries’ duty: Put clamps on porn sites”
* Louisville Courier-Journal…“Library Filters”
* Memphis Commercial Appeal…“Libraries, not Congress, should guide Net access”
* Milwaukee Journal Sentinel…“Let librarians play nanny”
* Minneapolis Star Tribune…“Internet filters / Affront to librarians, patrons”
* Newsday…“Unnecessary Headache for Libraries”
* New York Times…“Internet Filters and Free Speech”
* Peoria Journal-Star…Trust local libraries to police Internet
* Pittsburgh Post-Gazette…“Library privileges / The court lets Congress protect children on the Web”
* Providence Journal…“Dictating to libraries”
* Salt Lake City Tribune…“Unplugged”
* San Antonio Express News…“Free speech blocked along with porn sites”
* San Francisco Chronicle…“Why filters flop”
* San Jose Mercury News…“Court unwisely endorses government censorship at libraries”
* Springfield (MA.) Republican…“Court is kidding itself on Internet porn filters”
* Tampa Tribune…“Filtering Smut In Public Libraries”
* Wichita Eagle…“Smut Free”
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UPDATED 7/3/03
Libraries–Filtering
Source: New York Times
“Libraries Planning a Meeting on Filters”
A short article in the NYT about the ALA organized meeting set for August 14th.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items)
Documents in the News
Emergency Responders–United States
Source: Independent Task Force on Emergency Responders/Council on Foreign Relations
Just Released, Emergency Responders: Drastically Underfunded, Dangerously Unprepared
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text
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Documents in the News
Bioterrorism
Source: GAO
Full-Text, Bioterrorism: Information Technology Strategy Could Strengthen Federal Agencies’ Abilities to Respond to Public Health Emergencies. GAO-03-139
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Information Technology–Lists and Rankings
Source: VARBusiness
2003 VARBusiness 500
“…industry’s top VARs, systems integrators and IT consultants as ranked by their annual sales.” Includes exec profiles, and list of top distributors.
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Photojournalism–Webliography
Source: C&RL News
New, Photojournalism on the Web: A guide for practicing and student photojournalists
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Freedom of Information Act–United States
Source: U.S. Congress, Committee on Government Reform
Full-Text, Citizens Guide to Using the Freedom of Information Act
Thanks to S.P. for the news tip.
Note: The 2002 edition of this report is also available.

Dictionaries–Merriam Webster
Source: AP
Merriam-Webster Publishes New Collegiate Edition
M-W’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.) available tomorrow, From the article, Once a decade, Merriam-Webster updates its best-selling dictionaryincludes 10,000 new words and more than 100,000 new meanings and revisions among its 225,000 definitions.” From the article, Some of the new words have been a longtime getting the widespread assimilation that merits a move from the unabridged dictionary to the Collegiate. The citation file on the Yiddish exclamation “oy,” for example, dates back to the immigrant waves of the 1890s. Others have zoomed into the language with the speed of the Internet. The Web has spun the biggest influence on the American language in the past decade both with the new words it has spawned and the speed with which they have been adopted by the general public, said John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster.
Other additions include:
* “headbanger” (defined as both a hard rock musician and a fan)
* “dead presidents” (paper currency)
* “McJob” (low paying and dead-end work)
* “Frankenfood” (genetically engineered food)
* “longneck” (beer served in a bottle with a long neck)
See Also: An Overview of New Words from Merriam-Webster
See Also: Wordsmiths get own ‘funplex’ in revised Merriam-Webster (via Washington Times)

Site Search
FAST and Google Implementations
1) City of Chicago’s Web Site Now Using FAST Search and Transfer Technology
2) State of Arkansas Portal Now Using Google

Professional Reading Shelf
The June, 2003 Issue of ITAL: Information Technology and Libraries is Now Online
Full-Text Articles Include:
* “An Organizational Model for Instructional Support at a Community College”
* “Building a New Infrastructure for Digital Media: Northwestern University Library”
* “Improving Art History Education: Library and Faculty Partnerships in Instructional Technology Development”
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Research Libraries
Source: ARL
ARL Statistics 2001-02: Research Library Trends

Briefly
Web Browsers…Mozilla Version 1.4 Released

Web Search–Google
Source: The New York Times
Is Google God?
The real problem here is the ridiculous headline along with the folliowing statement, “Says Alan Cohen, a V.P. of Airespace, a new Wi-Fi provider: “If I can operate Google, I can find anything. I think most of you who read ResourceShelf on a regular basis can guess how I’m going to answer this question. Google is not all-knowing. It’s an information tool in a world where other hi-quality tools exist and need to be used. The issue in my mind is why are articles and comments similar to Mr. Cohen’s all over the place? I don’t think it’s because of the technology. Yes, Google does great work but it’s because of Google’s excellent marketing and public relations team. They’ve made the masses think that they have it ALL and nothing else is needed to find any answer to any question. Now, that’s what I call good marketing. Even more impressive is that they’ve done most by capitalizing on the value of viral marketing. Furthermore, it illustrates the lack of promotion by the information and library community to explain that it’s not always as easy as typing 2.1 words into the Google search box.
* Google is an excellent tool but others exist. Remember this sentence from a May issue of Forbes?
“Even Google’s engineers admit Fast and Teoma deliver results comparable to theirs.”
* For the professional searcher, AllTheWeb and AltaVista offer numerous search options not available with Google.
* If Google is all-knowing are databases like ABI/INFORM, Biography Reference Center, and the full collection of Dialog databases obsolete and a waste of money.
* Most importantly, all of the worlds (data, knowledge, information) is not accessible via Google or any web engine for that matter. Even if it was, how long would it take for the average searcher to find it, make judgments about it’s quality, currency, etc? Other databases, both free and fee-based can produce authoritative results more more easily if your willing to “learn” them. Plus, they just might offer the data in a more usable form. Remember, anyone can place anything on the web and have it show up in the results list of Google and other engines.
See Also: Walt Mossberg’s List of Google Limitations

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items)
Cross-Cultural Resources
Source: U.S. Dept. of State
New, Bibliography of Cross-Cultural Resources
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Diplomacy–Protocols
Source: U.S. Dept. of State
New, Bibliography of Protocol Resources
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Internet Filtering
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Full-Text Report, “Internet Blocking in Schools”
Announcement/Highlights ||| Direct to Full-Text

Professional Reading Shelf
Semantic Web
Source: DigiCult
Full-Text, Towards a Semantic Web for Heritage Resources
Numerous articles about how the semantic web will play a role with heritage resources. 43 pages .pdf. Articles include:
* “Development of the Semantic Web Must Begin at the Grass Roots Level”
* “Semantic Web should be based on Well-founded Ontologies”
* “A Cultural Heritage Semantic Web Example & Primer”

Electronic Journals–Project Muse
Project Muse Announces New Journals and Prices for 2004 Collection
More than 10 new titles. ALSO from Project Muse, a new Journal Alert e-mail service.
“…receive weekly announcements of new titles and new issues added to Muse. Subscribers can customize exactly what kind of journal alerts they want to receive, including selecting new issue alerts by individual titles, subject groups, or collections. The new issue alerts include direct links to tables of contents. Librarians and users can sign up, view or change their existing selections, or unsubscribe through the “Request Journals Alerts” link on the MUSE “Information” page.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items)
Health Information
Source: MEDLINEplus
New Compilation: Ergonomics
New Compilation: Weight Loss Surgery
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Telemarketing–United States
Source: FTC
New Web Site: DoNotCall.Gov
Access the web site (and register, if desired) for the national “do not call” list.

Professional Reading Shelf
Source: National Library of Australia Gateways
An Update: AskNow, Australia’s National Collaborative Reference Service
From the article, An initiative of the Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL), AskNow! is a 12-month pilot to test the potential for collaboration, and to assess and evaluate the demand, for this type of service�in addition to exploring issues of staffing and sustainability. AskNow! uses 24/7 reference software provided by the Metropolitan Cooperative Library System (MCLS) in the United States, hosted on their server. In the beginning, two �seats� were licensed, allowing for two librarians to operate the service concurrently. AskNow! went live on 26 August 2002, with no marketing or promotion, and received 45 inquiries. Usage for the next four months was constant, at around 30�40 inquiries per day and around 700 per month. This allowed the service to be bedded down, and for staff to become familiar with a totally new way of delivering reference. User demographics and satisfaction with the service is assessed through an exit survey. The most popular age group in these early months was those aged between 35 and 49. It was pleasing to note that 41 per cent of users were living in regional areas.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents
Business–Canada–Lists and Rankings
Source: Report on Business
Released Today, The Top 1000 Companies in Canada, 2003
The new “Power Book” is now online.
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Business–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: Entrepreneur & D&B
Full-Text, Hot 100: The fastest-growing new entrepreneurial businesses in America (2003)
This is the 9th annual ranking.
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Industrial Design–United States–Awards
Source: Industrial Design Society of America
New, 2003 Industrial Design Excellence Awards

Information Industry Briefs
LexisNexis…LN Purchases Midwest Based Public Records Company
Note: Last week ResourceShelf posted an article about Reed Elsevier’s (LN’s parent) desire to make acquisitions.
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ProQuest…Adds Data From From Snapshots International to ABI Databases
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Factiva…Conpany Adds New Content Including Agence France Press Material