Want to See the Sites? Better Find a Better Guide: Do Popular Search Engines Return Librarian-Recommended Sites?

This paper presents the results of a study of the utility of several popular search engines and of two newer search engines with respect to librarian-selected lists of Web resources and internet searching behaviors. This study addresses whether said resources are returned where internet searchers could reasonably be expected to find them and whether the search engines employed serve as acceptable substitutes for the expert advice of librarians. Search engines included in the study were Google, MSN.com, Yahoo, Lycos, AskJeeves, Icerocket, and Acoona. Searches for the study were based on the topics/titles of the “Internet Resources” columns from College and Research Libraries News for 2004. Finally, the paper addresses methodological concerns and proposes possible directions for further research