Imagine a reference librarian who, when asked for books on abortion, responds, “Do you mean adoption?”
Up until recently, a keyword search on Amazon for “abortion”
did just that.
Conspiracy theories aside, this is because a number of people presumably searched for abortion books and then ended up clicking on a few adoption titles.
So the suggestion was, as the Google News page excuses it, “determined automatically by a computer program.”
Speaking of Google, they are being sued, again, this time for lowering the results ranking of a company’s site (presumably just because the site became less popular), thereby depriving them of business.
Technology is an essential tool for what librarians do nowadays, but cases of skewed reviews are becoming more prevalent. What do these stories say about how
people understand the role of computers in the search process,
let alone how machines will mediate library services in the future?
Google filter
When you think of it Google is your first Internet Filter. If your not thee you are “not there”….
What would a reference librarian say?
Well, yes, actually, I can imagine a librarian doing exactly that. I thought the hallmark of a good reference interview was helping the user explore alternative terminologies and different points of view.
(Of course, what I can’t imagine is a librarian who did that every time, regardless of context. We humans do have a few advantages in exercising true judgement…)