j’s scratchpad

(which should more than make up a few librarians’ salaries)

A FIND/SVP survey discovered 84% of business executives think using a typical Web search engine takes longer than it should because of poor search results.

The survey results linked above mention some other executive search habits, but it doesn’t discuss their searching habits (i.e. are they poor searchers in the first place?) nor talk about whether those executives have access to a library or information professional who can assist with the searches. Many corporate librarians’ jobs are cut each year because of the belief that anyone can find anything online. This survey raises the issue of whether anyone can find anything online efficiently and cost-effectively. Perhaps a librarian, who often has above-average online search and retrieval skills, can help earn back some of that $31 billion because s/he might be able to search more effectively and efficiently. The difference of pay factors in here, too: information professionals often make less than many corporate executives, so it’s cheaper to have a librarian perform a search than for the CEO to do it.

A colleague and I begin each day with a series of database and Web searches because we’re better searchers than other people on staff. (Coincidentally, we’re paid less than those for whom we’re doing the searching.)

seen in several places

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2004 at 11:50 pm and is filed under Librarianship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.