j's scratchpad

(Gee, aren’t I a brain-washed member of the cult.)

Shimon makes an interesting analogy in his comment to my post about some research findings indicating billions of corporate dollars are wasted on Internet searches. I don’t think the analogy is appropriate based on the situation outlined in the article.

How common is it for someone to buy a pair of shoes, thinking those shoes will enable her to run 40 miles an hour? I can’t imagine owning a pair of shoes that would enable me to run even half that speed.

Many people have an assumption that they will be able to easily find information on the Internet. Because of this assumption, many people spend a lot of time trying to find information on the Internet. Many of us have had the experience of trying to track down something and realizing later that thirty minutes have gone by when we thought only five had passed. That’s one way people waste time on the Internet. The article didn’t exactly outline how businessmen and women think they are wasting the time on the Internet and, other than making vague statements, it doesn’t really describe how the search engines contribute to that waste of time. The article seems to be lacking in details. Its headline definitely grabs attention.

A news librarian has publicized the rule she shares with journanlists: if they’ve been searching for ten to fifteen minutes without any luck, they should consult her or another library staff member. I think that’s a good rule of thumb. As I said in the other post, often librarians have really sharp search skills. Sometimes it’s not just the technical knowledge of using search engine syntax, but it’s the ability to identify different ways to do the search, like using synonyms or obscure words to narrow results. Librarians also have knowledge of many information sources and may be able to direct someone to a specific place, not just an Internet search engine, or advise on a different strategy for finding the answer.

And that whole thing about having the lower-paid person do the searching instead of a corporate executive would definitely save a corporation money. It could also work well with time management, cost-benefit analysis, and opportunity cost. Is it better to have the CEO spending her time doing things only the CEO could do and have the librarian do some of her searching?

I think I’m repeating myself by typing all of this again, but it’s probably easier than directing Shimon to read all of my blog posts. = )

I appreciate the comments, Shimon. I hope you weren’t reading my blog just because I taglined your concert.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2004 at 7:16 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.