ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 4 8 0 / C & R L N e w s M J u n e 1 9 9 9 S ara A m a to , e d ito r A D A M : A ccess: h ttp ://a d a m .a c .u k . A D A M — th e A lt, D e s ig n , A rch itecture a n d M e d ia in fo rm a tio n g ate w ay — is a c a ta lo g o f In te rn e t resources th a t is b e in g cre ate d b y a te a m o f p ro fe s s io n a l lib raria n s fo r th e h ig h e r e d u c a tio n c o m m u n ity in the U n ite d K in g d o m . A D A M focuses o n In te rn e t sites th a t m a tch a sp e c ific set o f criteria d e v e lo p e d b y the te a m a n d p u b lis h e d o n th e W e b site. T he te a m catalo g s q u a lity sites th a t are k e p t up- to-date a n d c o n s id e re d a u th o rita tiv e , a c c u ­ rate, a n d w ith in th e sc o p e o f th e subjects c o v e re d w ith in th e catalo g . T he su b je c t ar­ eas in c lu d e d are a p p lie d arts, architecture, d e s ig n , fin e art, m e d ia , m u s e u m stud ie s a n d c o n se rv a tio n , th eo ry, a n d p ro fe s s io n a l p rac­ tices re la te d to th e su b je ct areas. As th is is a selective cata lo g , at th e tim e o f th e re v ie w , th e c a ta lo g o n ly c o n ta in e d slig h tly m o re th a n 1,700 item s. H o w e ver, the g a te w a y is b e in g a d d e d to c o n tin u o u s ly a n d in th e p e rio d o f o n e w e e k , m o re th a n 80 a d d itio n a l item s h a d b e e n a d d e d . T he A D A M W e b site a n d th e search e n ­ g in e fo r th e site u se D u b lin C o re m e ta d a ta to e n h a n c e searching . S earch ing th e c a ta lo g c a n b e d o n e in a s im p le m o d e o r th ro u g h th e “P ow e r S earch,” w h ic h supp orts ad v a nc e d s e a rc h in g in c lu d in g tr u n c a tio n , b o o le a n , p h ra se searching , a n d th e a b ility to lim it to in d iv id u a l fields. In d o in g so m e s a m p le searches o n in d i­ v id u a l artists a n d architects, th e results w e re fairly lim ite d , b u t in c o m p a ris o n w ith d o in g a search o n th e In te rn e t, th e y are m u c h m o re fo c u s e d a n d th e results are w e ll su ite d fo r research p u rp o se s. M y first a tte m p t to search “G a in s b o ro u g h ” re s u lte d in n o h its, w h ic h w a s a surprise b a se d o n th e sou rce o f th e in d e x in g , b u t the results vary b y artist. A k e y w o rd search fo r “M ary C assatt” a n d “R e n o ir” e a ch re sulte d in o n ly o n e record; ho w e ve r, a search fo r “Frank L lo y d W rig h t” retrie ve d a m u c h m o re v arie d list o f 15 resources. A s e a ch reco rd d o e s in c lu d e a list o f s u b ­ ject h e a d in g s, w h e n results are fe w , o n e c an e x p a n d a search. T hu s c h o o s in g to search b y “im p re ssio n ist" a llo w s o n e to retrieve re­ late d artists as w e ll as sites th at h ave a b ro ad e r fo cu s th a n a n y s in g le in d iv id u a l artist. W h e n a search d o e s result in n o item s b e in g fo u n d , A D A M p ro v id e s a lin k to a n a d d itio n a l search e n g in e — “M a m m a ”— w h ic h searches so m e o f th e m a jo r search e n g ine s ( A lt a V is t a , E x c ite , I n f o s e e k , L y c o s , W e b c ra w le r a n d Y a h o o !) s im u lta n e o u s ly o n th e In te rn e t. T hu s w h ile o n ly o n e site w as fo u n d in A D A M o n “M ary C assatt,” “M a m m a ” retrie ve d 64 W e b sites. Entries are fu lly searchable w ith in the cata­ lo g o n A D A M a n d p ro v id e a c o m p le te d e ­ scrip tio n fo r e a ch W eb site, a list sub ject term s (in c lu d in g D e w e y D e c im a l call n u m b e rs ), the U R I, a n d a u n iq u e id e n tifie r c a lle d “R O A D ,” w h ic h is b a se d o n th e softw are u s e d to d e ­ v e lo p th e gatew ay. T im e p e rio d s are in c lu d e d w ith in the s u b ­ ject fie ld a n d th is is o n e o f th e sp e c ia l fe a­ tures th a t e n h a n c e s searching . T he “O p tio n S earch” feature p ro v id e s the a b ility to search w ith in th e title , sub je ct fie ld s o r descriptors, a n d a llo w s o n e to d o a m o re pre cise search. O n e a n n o y in g fe a tu re is th e “v ie w fu ll A D A M re c o rd ” lin k as p a rt o f th e reco rd , w h ic h if sele cte d reveals a b la n k pag e . N e ve rthe less, th e p ro je c t itse lf, o n e o f several th a t is cu rre n tly u n d e rw a y to p ro ­ v id e gatew ays to selected q u a lity resources o n th e W e b b y to p ic a l areas, is a g o o d start­ in g p o in t fo r research in th e arts field s. T his is a respe ctab le site to lo cate e x a m p le s o f art w o rk s w ith hig h - q u a lity g ra p h ic im ag e s as w e ll as auth o ritativ e in fo rm a tio n o n in d iv id u a l subjects a n d c a n o n ly im p ro v e as th e p ro je ct e x p a n d s a n d th e te a m c o n tin u e s to a d d to Sara A m a to is ele ctro n ic services and W e b d e ve lo p m e n t librarian a t Bowdoin College, e-mail: samato@bowdoin.edu I n t e r n e t R e v i e w s http://adam.ac.uk mailto:samato@bowdoin.edu C &RL N e w s ■ J u n e 1 9 9 9 / 4 8 1 the database.— Teresa Fishel, M acale ste r C o l­ lege; fishel@ m acalester.edu G o o g le ! S e a r c h E n g in e . Access: h ttp :// w w w .g o o g le .c o m . C hances are that y o u have never he ard o f the G o o g le ! search e n g ine . It is n o t a m ajo r player in the W e b search e n g ine gam e, a n d m ost o f its p ro m o tio n has h a d to rely o n w o rd o f m o u th . T oo b ad , because G oo g le ! offers p o w e rfu l searching features, a stream line d e ­ sign, a n d ease o f use th at m ak e it a v a lu a b le research tool. A t first glance, its sim ple user interface can be m isle ad ing . W h a t goes o n b e h in d the scenes o f this search e n g ine is actually q u ite sophisticated. G oogle! is the o utco m e o f three years o f research in W e b searching at the Stanford University C o m p ute r Science D epart­ m ent b y its fo und ers, Sergey B rin a n d Larry Page. E ach search lo o k s at “over a b illio n h y p e rlink s” o n the W e b to see w h o is p o in t­ in g to w h o m , w ith the id e a th at im p o rtant W e b pages p o in t to o th e r im p o rta n t W eb pages. T he real beau ty o f G o o g le ! th o u g h , for librarians w h o teach users h o w to search the W eb, is in its front-end d esign a n d search­ in g features. T he first th in g y o u w ill n o tic e a b o u t G oo gle ! is w h a t’s n o t there. N o clutter. U n ­ lik e Infose ek, Excite, LYCO S, a n d som e o f the o the r m ajo r portals, this search e n g ine is le an a n d clean. There are n o u n w a n te d a d ­ vertisem ents, teasers, o r distracting lin k s, just a sim p le b o x fo r y o u r search query, a c o u p le o f buttons, a n d a n o p tio n to learn m ore a b o u t G oo g le ! a n d w h a t it can d o . T hat’s it. Like m a n y o n lin e lib rary catalo g s a n d p e rio d ic a l indexes, G o o g le ! assum es A N D betw e en search term s inste ad o f O R . In m ost o ther W eb search engine s, it’s the o the r w ay a ro u n d . G o o g le ! ig n o re s c o m m o n w o rd s (sto p w o rd s) such as “th e ” a n d “o f,” a n d it does n o t stem w ords. If y o u are searching fo r c o lo n cancer, y o u w ill n o t retrieve pages d e a lin g w ith co lo nie s o r co lo ne ls w ith c an ­ cer, that is, unless they in fact m e n tio n colon cancer. G oogle! is n o t perfect. It does n o t o f­ fer truncation o r true B o ole an searching, but it does offer som e other nice search features. Ju st lik e w ith any n e w search e n g ine , y o u s h o u ld alw ays read the h e lp screens before d iv in g in. G oo g le ! uses som e o f the sam e searching techniques y o u have com e to k n o w w h e n u sing the ad v a nc e d search m o d es in AltaVista, LYCOS, a n d others. O perators such as the d o u b le q u o ta tio n m arks ( “ “) that a l­ lo w y o u to search fo r b o u n d phrases, a n d the plu s sign ( “+”) a n d m in u s sign ( “-”) that a llo w y o u to require a n d p ro h ib it term s are all here. There is n o “ad v ance d search” m o d e w ith G oo g le ! The sing le search m o d e recog­ nizes a ll o f these operators. S o m e th in g u n iq u e to G o o g le ! is the “I ’m Feeling Lucky” b u tto n . C licking this a u to m ati­ cally takes y o u to the first W eb pag e returned fo r y o u r query. Som e students a n d librarians I k n o w sw ear b y it. T he lib rarian a n d p u r­ veyor o f critical th in k in g in m e m akes m e suspect. Y o u b e the judge. Search engines are getting better. Increas­ ingly, students an d other library users w an t to k n o w h o w to pe rform exact W e b searches, rather th an sift th ro ug h a th o u san d or so W eb pages. Search engines like G oogle! present an alternative to the m ajor com m ercial portals that cater to less selective users w h o search the Internet prim arily for recreation. G o o g le í’s fo ­ cus o n the searcher a n d no-nonsense design m ake it a useful instructional tool for librar­ ians.— B ry an S in clair, U niversity o f N orth C aro­ lin a a t Asheville; sin clair@ b u lld o g .u n ca.e d u ■ (W a s h in g to n H o tlin e c o n t. fro m p a g e 4 7 6 ) the D M C A safe h a rb o r p ro visio ns fo r OSPs. O f course each institu tio n needs to evaluate these letters o n a case-by-case basis as it re­ ceives th em , a n d at all tim es co nsu lt its legal co u n se l w h e n fram ing its response. T he O ffic e o f In fo r m a tio n T e c h n o lo g y P olicy is c o n tin u in g to m o n ito r the im p le ­ m e n tatio n o f the D M C A a n d to d e v e lo p m ore d e taile d interpretations o f its very h a zy a n d c o m p le x pro visio ns as they evolve. Y o u can h e lp b y se n d in g us exam ples o f letters or o ther contacts citin g the act that y o u m ay receive fro m the co nte n t providers, as w e ll as le tting us k n o w h o w y o u re sp o n d e d to th em . C o ntact R ick W eingarten, director o f the ALA O ffice o f In fo rm a tio n T e chnology P olicy, 1301 P ennsylvania A ve., N W , Suite 403, W ashington, D .C . 20004 or p h o n e (800) 941-8478 o r e-mail: rw w @ alaw ash.org. ■ mailto:fishel@macalester.edu http://www.google.com mailto:sinclair@bulldog.unca.edu mailto:rww@alawash.org 4 8 2 / C & R L N e w s ■ J u n e 1 9 9 9