Monday, November 10, 2008

Week 10 - Reading Response

David Hawking Two Part Web Search Engines:
Fantastic article which makes me feel a little as if I understand how search engines work now. I had an abstract idea, but I figured it was just something I'd leave to the programmers when I told them what I wanted them to develop. Now, however, I feel like I can competently ask for things that are possible, and even suggest things that might be new (assuming, one day, that someone cares what I want in a search engine, that is).


Study on the Deep Web
Absolutely fascinating. I was surprised to see that I am familiar with many of the Deep Web sites listed here, and I was amazed to see that 97.4% of the deep web sites were 100% free to the public. It seems like maybe the internet Lessig was hoping for does exist, you just have to be willing to spend the time diving to the right depth to see it. The science stuff was iffy, but because of LIS 2000, a lot of that was familiar as well, and on the whole I really enjoyed reading this article.


Current Trends in OAI...
I am sorry--I spent quite a while reading and re-reading , and this one was just over my head. Perhaps after I read other people's responses Iwill gain a better understanding of what all the technical information and jargon means in terms of real life searching for these specialized collections.

2 comments:

Kristy said...

I thought it was great that you related the deep web article to the Lessig we read for LIS 2000... I hadn't thought of that & it's a great connection. LIS 2000 helps make me realize how relevent the stuff we're learning in this class is to the library profession.

elaina v. said...

Hi Maggie,

agreed--that last article was totally over my head as well.

Also, I think OPAC developers and catalog builders actually do care what users think of search engines/catalogs (at least in my library). So have no fear! Someday maybe you can give input to building a better search engine!