Google: Reference librarians can keep their jobs

Library Journal Academic Newswire
May 13, 2003

Copyright 2003 Library Journal. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

According to Craig Silverstein, Google's Director of Technology, the goal of the Internet's popular search engine is to seem as smart as a reference librarian. But today's reference librarian shouldn't worry too much. According to Silverstein, who presented new directions for Google during the opening keynote at the InfoToday Conference in New York, May 7, the Holy Grail for Google, to act like a reference librarian in responding to "natural language" queries, "was hundreds of years away." Meanwhile, he noted, information professionals are needed to help people articulate their information needs, to help form queries, and to engage in the back and forth dialogue that results in finding appropriate information. Searching in the future, Silverstein said, will require "a greater role for discernment." There will be more information, he noted "but it will not necessarily all be good information."

Librarians can also expect questions to get harder, since researchers will be able to answer to the easier questions themselves with search engines. For librarians, the question will be "what exists that the engine couldn't return?" Silverstein asked. "Is there more out there?" In the future, Silverstein said Google users can look forward to more information online, including "what you don't think of as information," such as web blogs. Another example is Google's catalogs project--the scanning of content from consumer catalogs. This proof of concept project supports Google's mission "to make all the world's information available." Since Google is committed to making all information available, Silverstein expects filtering to remain an issue "since some people don't want all information." Silverstein, however, said he was optimistic about the filtering debate, saying that in the long term it will work itself out. He compared the issue to the debates surrounding popular materials in the early days of public libraries.

Posted May 19, 2003