Comments on: On credibility of search results http://federatedsearchblog.com/2009/03/02/on-credibility-of-search-results/ Covers topics related to federated search and the deep web Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:01:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Sol http://federatedsearchblog.com/2009/03/02/on-credibility-of-search-results/comment-page-1/#comment-20706 Sol Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:23:15 +0000 http://federatedsearchblog.com/2009/03/02/on-credibility-of-search-results/#comment-20706 Jonathan - agreed. We can't protect users from the responsibility of critical thinking. And, yes, Serials Solutions Summon is on my list of things to write about. Jonathan – agreed. We can’t protect users from the responsibility of critical thinking. And, yes, Serials Solutions Summon is on my list of things to write about.

]]> By: Jonathan Rochkind http://federatedsearchblog.com/2009/03/02/on-credibility-of-search-results/comment-page-1/#comment-20461 Jonathan Rochkind Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:07:31 +0000 http://federatedsearchblog.com/2009/03/02/on-credibility-of-search-results/#comment-20461 I think federated search in an academic environment is indeed useful for limiting the range of the search to scholarly materials, or more-or-less scholarly materials since it's often hard to keep out popular magazines. But it's no substitute for the need for patrons to be critical and information literate -- there's no way around this with technology, our users need to learn to evaluate the credibility and viewpoint of a source themselves, technology can't do it for them. Even if federated search could (which it can't), none of our users are ONLY going to be using federated search in their lives, we do them a dis-service if we think federated search avoids the need for critical evaluation on their part. And of course, the feature of federated search we're talking about here is not limited to broadcast search technology. It's about controlling the inputs to the search, but that can be done in a locally built index too, as we see with Google Scholar, or Serial Solutions Summon. I'd be interested to see an article on this blog talking about Serial Solutions Summon, and what it's relationship and significance are toward the kind of federated broadcast search that focuses on scholarly/published materials. I think federated search in an academic environment is indeed useful for limiting the range of the search to scholarly materials, or more-or-less scholarly materials since it’s often hard to keep out popular magazines.

But it’s no substitute for the need for patrons to be critical and information literate — there’s no way around this with technology, our users need to learn to evaluate the credibility and viewpoint of a source themselves, technology can’t do it for them. Even if federated search could (which it can’t), none of our users are ONLY going to be using federated search in their lives, we do them a dis-service if we think federated search avoids the need for critical evaluation on their part.

And of course, the feature of federated search we’re talking about here is not limited to broadcast search technology. It’s about controlling the inputs to the search, but that can be done in a locally built index too, as we see with Google Scholar, or Serial Solutions Summon.

I’d be interested to see an article on this blog talking about Serial Solutions Summon, and what it’s relationship and significance are toward the kind of federated broadcast search that focuses on scholarly/published materials.

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