Finding GOOD information on the Web.

I was complaining to my staff about the awful garbage I seem to be getting from Google these days, even when I do an advanced search. I receive "google alerts" that contain news about Twinsburg, Twinsburg Library etc. Some of the results have no relation to my topic! Gone are the good old days when you got quality results from Yahoo, remember EXCITE! and "HOTBOT?" My techies started telling me how Google ranks articles using keywords, how often a word appears, how often a page is linked etc. What I really wanted to know is-where can I get good solid information that doesn't "scandalize me?" (as my French professor used to say. ) C.J. Lynce our systems administrator reminded me that I should use www.ohioweblibrary.org when looking for credible information. It is a great place to get information from credible databases and magazines. Fred Baerkircher, our Adult Services Manager, turned me onto this PC WORLD article, that talks about "semantic searches." Semantic searching doesn't just look for keywords and rank them, but "dips into the meaning in language to produce highly relevant search results." This sounds like a great improvement. CJ reminded me that human (translate-librarians!) created search directories are the best. It is up to people to find the best, credible information. An example is Kidsclick a web search created for kids by librarians. This is a directory that will lead young students to appropriate sites. You can even have the page set up by "Dewey Numbers." Where you find the book on the shelf-is where you would find the web page! I've unsuscribed to my Google alerts-hoping to remove some of the garbage out of my brain, and will listen to my techies-who won't steer me wrong. So...say no to Google-just for a day, and see what you find!