Searching 2.0

Citation

Secker, J. (2010), "Searching 2.0", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 44 No. 3, pp. 291-293. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330331011064285

A few years ago I reviewed a book by Michael Sauers, which was a librarian's guide to blogging and RSS. I found the book immensely readable and with many examples of good practice, although it did rely somewhat on developments in the USA. Therefore I was keen to read Sauers' latest offering, which covers other Web 2.0 tools and what he calls “super‐search strategies”. I have to confess that this book has sat on my shelf for a little while, so it has perhaps been out for almost a year, however, one potential issue with books on new technologies is their tendency to date quite quickly. Reviewing it a little while after publication is therefore no bad thing, as it will indicate how current the book will remain.

The book is pretty hefty, being over 300 pages in length and almost A4 in size – which makes it less than portable for reading on your travels. It is made up of 11 chapters and includes a foreward by Diane Kovacs and a preface, which is where I started under the helpfully entitled section “How to use this book”. Sauers starts by suggesting you read chapters 1 and 2 first, but the later chapters can be read in any order. Chapter 1 is entitled “What is Web 2.0” and I really was not expecting much new here. The introduction to tagging and folksomonies is helpful though and the key concepts of Web 2.0 are explained clearly and simply. Chapter 2 explains how to get organised using Delicious to manage your bookmarks or internet favourites. There are plenty of screenshots to guide you through setting up your own account on Delicious and while these are useful they do make a book date quite easily. One change since the book was written is that you now need a Yahoo account to set up Delicious. But I agree with Sauers, Delicious is a great tool and he walks the reader through almost everything you could possibly want to do with it, from export options to Facebook integration. He also usefully has a list of libraries using Delicious on pages 53‐4 – although disappointingly only one is outside the USA.

Chapter 3 examines “popular search engines” which includes, Google, Microsoft's Live Search and Yahoo. Again there are many screenshots from each search engine and this chapter is really helpful for those who teach advanced internet searching classes. The Google advanced features are discussed in some detail and the Preferences options are something I intend to incorporate into my own classes. At the end of this chapter Sauers suggests you run some searches to compare the three search engines, again these are useful tips that can be incorporated into my information literacy classes.

Chapter 4 is devoted entirely to the web site we all love to hate: Wikipedia. Sauers provides an overview of its history and looks at why we love and hate Wikipedia. He also looks at controversies that surround Wikipedia, documenting several stories where individuals edited their own biographies on Wikipedia, which I found useful anecdotes for teaching. He looks in detail at searching Wikipedia, adding and editing entries, citing Wikipedia and includes some basic wiki syntax which is helpful. Sauers also provides an insight into fellow librarians' attitudes towards Wikipedia, finding that more and more are using it to answer reference queries.

Chapter 5 concentrates on searching for media, including images, video and audio. It includes using Flickr, YouTube and Podscope (an audio and video site). Flickr is my favourite photo sharing website and I wasn't sure this book could tell me much new as I use it regularly. However, Sauers looks in detail at the advanced search on Flickr, including searches you can do by camera type and for specific locations that have been “geotagged”. The section on YouTube starts with a warning that material on YouTube may infringe copyright, but he does not think that should prevent librarians from using YouTube to answer reference queries. He looks at more advanced searches that can be done such as filtering out videos not suitable for minors and limiting your search by features such as duration, language or category. Finally, the section on Podscope I found particularly enlightening as I had not used this search engine before – it is used to find podcasts and actually searches the audio of a file, rather than just the title or metadata. It even has an embedded audio player to allow you to listen to the file! I tried it out and found myself listening to an American College Baseball report (do not ask what I searched for!). Unfortunately, on returning to the site I found the search engine has been discontinued in July 2009 and I could no longer get it to work.

Chapter 6 is quite a meaty chapter looking at what Sauers calls “local search” including Google Maps and Windows Live Local. He starts by discussing how the interface of these sites works, which is a little different to traditional web pages. He then examines the different views that are available including: map, satellite, terrain, street view and traffic. Using these services to get directions, for example driving directions, is discussed in some detail and again there are many screenshots to illustrate this. This chapter is particularly useful for reference librarians who are asked about local services or directions on a regular basis.

Chapter 7 entitled “Print Search” will be welcome by most librarians as it looks in detail at how to find content within printed books. The Google Book Search has always been a bit of a mystery to me, as it seems to be constantly changing, so I was hoping this chapter would answer many of the questions I get asked in training sessions! I learnt that there are three different versions of availability from Google Books: full view, limited preview and snippet view. The example search that Sauers provides on Alexander Hamilton nicely illustrates how this service works. This chapter also looks at the Amazon “Search inside” feature and compares the type of features and content that can be found for the same search. Sauers has a nice disclaimer in the notes of this chapter, that he does not intend to cover any of the controversies over these services related to copyright issues, but simply explains how they can be used in reference queries. My only concern is that these controversies do lead to unannounced changes to the services that are available, so cannot be ignored!

Other useful topics covered in this book include finding content on the internet that has been removed, for example using Google's Cache, but also several other specific search engines (covered in Chapter 8), using desktop search tools, which I have found invaluable for retrieving lost e‐mails or documents, filed on my computer! (discussed in Chapter 10). Chapter 9 looks at “OpenSearch” which allows you to add additional search engines to your browser, but also with a bit of know how, to create your own OpenSearch plugins that can be added to a browser, such as a library catalogue search. This chapter is probably only for the more “techy” librarians out there, but it is a useful outline of how to create an OpenSearch plug in. Finally Chapter 11 looks at the future of search engines and what Sauers calls “data visualization”. He explores the site Kartoo (www.kartoo.net), which is unfortunately another site that has closed down (in early 2010), which does not say much for the future of the visual search engine! Literature Map is the other example given and this site is still live. The Aqua Browser OPAC also has this visual representation that Sauers refers to.

Overall, I think this is a well researched and useful book that will come in handy for my advanced internet searching classes. I think it relies a little too much on screenshots and it is a shame that a few of the services mentioned are now defunct. The chapters on more “mainstream” Web 2.0 services such as Flickr, Delicious and the various Google tools are well written and useful however.