I was alerted to an article today in the New York Times, the article "Old Search Engine, the Library, Tries to Fit Into a Google World." It just touches on the surface a lot of issues that we as librarians are facing/fearing as patrons increasingly use Google for their research forgoing other library resources (print and electronic).

Why is this a problem? Well many excellent research sites are huge, with many levels and pages. Google only skims the surface of these sites and does not index content that could be in a free electronic research collection. So searchers will never find this good stuff because it isn't indexed.

So I know what you are thinking..."Well not index that stuff?" That is a good start and that is what libraries and research centers are doing, but that is not the cure all.

Are researchers willing to plow through Google's results lists to get to reliable information that might be burried within Google itself? Google's uses specific algorithm, which sorts search results based mainlin on how many pages link to the matching page. So databases such as PubMed (that has been indexed in Google since 2002), which display citations on web pages with few links are going to be burried in the mire of Google results. This is further explained in "Just Because it is Indexed Doesn't Mean You Will Find It."

Do I have any answers? No easy ones. I think it is more important to be armed and know what the public thinks, expects, wants and how they are getting it. We need to think like a patron and look at ways to lead them to lead them to quality information the need and deserve.