Web/Internet Search Engines

Technology and rising user expectations have contributed to changes in information seeking behavior. Today’s library users have a different set of information skills from those of just a few years ago. They live in a highly interactive, networked world and routinely turn to Web search engines for their information needs. Today’s information consumers seek self-service (moving to self sufficiency), satisfaction and seamlessness in the information seeking experience. Services provided by Google, Amazon and similar companies are the major cause of these emerging trends. Customers have embraced these products because of their ease of use and quick delivery of ‘good enough’ result

Researchers do not need to take information literacy classes to use commonly used internet search engines. They do not need to worry about forgetting important but infrequently used search results or commands. In addition, the search results delivered by online search engines are sorted using relevance ranking systems that are more user-friendly than the ones currently employed by library OPACs.

Internet search engines have considerable problems when it comes to library resources. These engines are rarely connected to institutional subscriptions, and even when such connections exist, they are not comprehensive and do not reflect the depth and breadth of most library collections. Furthermore, these engines lack some key functionality – including journal home pages, TOCs, title and subject browsing, etc.