2012 Best Practices for Government Libraries

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BEST PRACTICES 2012
Encouraging users to use search engines other than Google is another way to
assist users to be more self-reliant internet searchers. Bingle (http://bingle.nu/) is
good for showing users the different results when searching using Google and Bing.
It presents side-by-side, on separate panes on one screen results in their native
search environments. Bingle is aware that in some parts of the world (like in
Australia) you cannot see Google search results (you used to). Providing these tools
as a solo does saves you time and enables you to offer more in-depth specialized
research services to other users.
The Catalogue
A tool that is often overlooked as a time-saver and assisting people to find
information is the catalogue. For whatever reason, the catalogue is often the last
place people search for information. Often the search page is not very intuitive for
users. Whether one subconsciously takes on the general idea that more relevant
and useful information is out there on the internet and the library has only old
“stuff” or some other reason, this attitude can diminish the value of the catalogue.
This type of thinking has led to the barest minimum of information being recorded,
so that the catalogue becomes a poor tool for information retrieval. The rationale
behind this type of thinking is that time is saved for the provision of 'visible' or
interactive library services that are seen of higher “marketable value’ than
catalogue records. Cataloguing is seen as a “backroom” task not very important to
adding to the value of the “frontline” library services. This is a false saving as the
recording of more detailed information especially internal departmental documents
in a catalogue record does assist in the retrieval of unique and hard-to-find
information. This does add significant value to the library service.
No longer should the library catalogue be seen as just an inventory of items
retained in the collection, but a tool for resource discovery with records linking to
items and resources external to the collection. Even more so now with digitally
born documentation, catalogues can be used to enhance information retrieval
through using metadata, in-house taxonomies, ontologies, etc.
Depending on information environment you work in, the catalogue can be used
in other ways to assist in searching for information. When working in an area where
there are no commercial bibliographic databases that cover the department’s core
business, consider cataloguing information rich websites for inclusion into the
library catalogue. This is a way of making the deep or invisible web information
more visible to users. The websites catalogued would include those with grey
literature or information that search engines such as Google cannot uncover. This
enhances the value of the content of the catalogue. You can then provide links from
the catalogue to customised search engines, for the websites that can be searched
by Google, etc. with a link “Search this or similar websites” It is also a way of
keeping a history of websites. Often when organisations change or merge the
website URL changes. Keeping a record can assist in future searching of the
Internet Archive (www.archive.org) or other web archives. If making records of
information rich websites is not relevant to your work situation consider adding the
URL of the websites to author authority records to keep track of URL changes as a
research tool.