Information Outlook, vol. 2, no. 10, October 1998, pp. 13-14.
By Carolyn Kotlas
Is the World Wide Web luring people away from your information center? Are your organization's employees "outsourcing" services without your knowledge or consent? There have always been people who overlooked or avoided going to the library for their information needs. Now, as never before, the web's growing wealth of resources can increase this behavior in an organization.
Just what is this strong attraction for substituting the web for the library? Some users' motives have nothing to do with belief that the web is better than their organization's information professionals. Some of their reasons include:
Users may be ignorant of superior information alternatives or believe that "you can find everything on the web," so why look elsewhere? Some have had bad experiences with libraries and library staff, feel that they can do a better job of research for themselves, or just want to bypass traditional information "gatekeepers" to get to the "good stuff" that is only on the web. Even users who do come to the library may only use the web terminals, instead of consulting the library staff. According to Debbie Bogenschutz (Cincinnati State Technical and Community College): "We have a hard time convincing people physically in the library to use [the library's recommended electronic resources] instead of automatically hitting that search button at the top of the screen and taking potluck."
While there are many information services on the web that provide excellent information, even the most popular services can present problems for inexperienced users:
Quick answers to reference questions and general research
Some examples:
Yahoo!
AltaVista
WebCrawler
Potential problems: not all web resources are complete, accurate, and up-to-date; the free versions of standard reference tools on the web may be old or incomplete; some search sites can't handle complex searches
Market research and technical reports
Some examples:
Gartner Group
Forrester Research
Frost & Sullivan
Potential problems: many authoritative resources will not be available on the web; the web may not
serve well for complicated topics or in-depth research; more recent publications are often favored
over articles from back issues and older reports; free reports from commercial sources may be
biased or incomplete; users may be asked to pay web suppliers for reports that their library can
furnish at no charge
Locate information on people, companies, and products
Some examples:
Potential problems: web "white pages" locators are not complete; web "yellow pages" may only include companies that advertise on the site; directories may be too general for specialized needs; many product reviews and comparisons are vendor-produced and not impartial
Locate and acquire books
Some examples:
Potential problems: by bypassing library's acquisitions procedures and book distributors, users risk spending more, buying wrong editions, or duplicating library's copies; major online book vendors are generally not good sources for out-of-print-books, technical books, or foreign publishers; any time users circumvent established book acquisitions, it disrupts purchasing, accounting, and cataloging processes
Use online news services
Some examples:
Potential problems: unless service lets users create personal profiles, users can experience information overload; content of newspapers' online and print versions may differ; some services require fees for accessing the complete articles.
Get copies of articles
Some examples:
UnCover Company uncweb.carl.org/
Potential problems: wastes money when the user's library already has the article or can get it through interlibrary loan agreements; web copies of documents may be incomplete--missing photographs or charts; libraries can negotiate prices per document that are lower than what an individual user pays.
Unfortunately, these activities can waste people's time and the organization's money; they can cause management to question the value of the library; and they could result in users getting incomplete, out-of-date, and just plain wrong information. Users may not even be aware of the web's shortcomings until the first time the web fails to deliver what they need and they finally show up at your door. Before this happens, make the web work for you, rather than in competition with you. Here's how:
Publicize your services
Attracting users to the library has been a long-standing concern, hence the number of marketing tools (such as Marketing Matters: An SLA Information Kit), articles, and workshops for the information professional. Don't overlook traditional marketing tools (library newsletters, open houses, brochures, and bulletin boards), and make liberal use of in-house online publicity resources. If your organization has a web site, show what the library has to offer by contributing to the site's content.
Educate your users
Assume that some people are going to do their own searching, so help them do it correctly and efficiently by offering web searching tips and techniques classes or handouts. At every training opportunity, instruct your users on how to evaluate web resources. (For some articles on web evaluation, see "Evaluating Web Sites for Educational Uses: Bibliography and Checklist" http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/irg-49.html).
Learn from your users
No one can know everything about the web, so talk with your "power users" and use what they've learned to help your other users. Caroline Urquhart Adams (solo librarian at Maxtor for 750 engineers) maintains her position as company web information conduit by finding out what online sources her power users favor. Talking with them also enables her to alert them to non-web resources that she can provide.
Use your library's web
pages or organization's
Intranet to point to resources
Cokie Anderson (librarian for Fellers, Snider, Blankenship, Bailey & Tippens) provides "'reader's guides' in the form of Intranet pages with links to accurate, reputable sites in various areas of interest." If your organization doesn't have an Intranet, set up a simple collection of links on a network that employees can access through their web browsers. (For how to get started, see "VERA: A Pragmatic Approach to Intranet Creation," www.iat.unc.edu/publications/monitor/issue6/index.html).
Appeal to your
organization's "bottom line"
It's not a bargain when engineers, lawyers, and other professionals spend hours doing the searching that you are paid to do. And if they are billing this time to projects or cases, it isn't a good deal for the clients either. You may woo them away from reliance on the web by figuring out how much searches cost in personnel time to show that money can be saved when they take advantage of your skills and experience.
Replicate your users
searches to convince them
that you can provide value
Debbie West (technical librarian for BetzDearborn, Inc.) duplicates her users' "quick and dirty" web patent searches using Derwent or CAS to illustrate the limitations of the sites they used. She has "noticed a return of several of my users to traditional patent searching after a honeymoon period using free patent sites on the Internet."
Stress quality over quantity
Users can be impressed by the quantity of information available on the web until their simple search request retrieves hundreds or thousands of web pages in no particular order of relevance. After they've experienced this information overload, show them how you can help them save time by using the best resources, both from the web and from your library.
Promote services
that the Web can't provide
Free information doesn't necessarily mean that it's good information. Inform your users of the non-web services and resources that your organization thinks are worth paying for.
You know your organization and users better than outsiders on the web do. Add value to the sheer volume of data on the web by analyzing and "repackaging" Web resources for your organization's specific niche.
The World Wide Web is changing how our users view us and our services. We can sit back and watch our importance to our organizations dwindle while our users make do with what others choose to give them on the web. Or we can see the web as our ally, rather than our competition, by incorporating the best it offers into a collection of resources and services that best meets our users needs, thus making everyone a winner.
I would like to thank all the people in the SOLOLIB-L and SLAEDD-L listservs who shared their experiences and comments with me. Although I was not able to quote everyone who wrote to me, I drew inspiration from all your messages.