The only thing that I would add to this analogy [of Google with an unqualified library assistant] is that some one has described the World Wide Web as a library where someone has ripped off all the covers and title pages and piled the books randomly in the middle of the floor. I therefore think that Eve is being slightly too kind to Google - unless her personal experience of Library Assistants is that they indeed do that!Compare this to a recent quote from someone who does know something about the Internet:
Google is slowly becoming a force in medical information. I know that librarians will point to the wonders of commercial medical information services. Heck, 20 years ago I was involved in Pharmaceutical News Index, and Google blows that system out of the water by accident. Are the commercial medical information companies aware of the Google. Sure, but I don’t most of these outfits think Google is savvy enough to master the mysteries of MeSH.Some librarians are moving beyond narrow prejudice. This slideset by Patricia Anderson for example. What remain difficult is to see the world through the eyes of users. What makes this difficult for librarians? - ignorance often, but also a reliance on a commercial model that is disappearing.
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