loupy-ga,
The short answer to your question is that an "internet search engine"
is a software program (powered by computer algorithms) used to query
for specific information from the entire Internet. "On-line library
catalogue[s]," on the other hand, are generally networked databases
which have the (often desired) limitation that they contain only that
information present within whatever "library" you are talking about.
I think a brief definition of the key terms would be useful before
continuing:
What exactly is the Internet?
From the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School's website,
http://web.nps.navy.mil/~miller/Inet.html ,
"The Internet is a worldwide collection of computer networks
connecting academic, governmental, commercial, and organizational
sites. It provides access to communication services and information
resources to millions of users around the globe. Internet services
include direct communication (e-mail, chat), online conferencing
(Usenet News, e-mail discussion lists), distributed information
resources (World Wide Web, Gopher), remote login and file transfer
(telnet, ftp), and many other valuable tools and resources."
And what exactly are on-line library catalogues? Simply put, they are
"computerized" versions of the "card catalogs" of old, where tall
cabinets with small drawers labeled alphabetically contained thousands
of small white cards, one for each book or publication in the
library). These are closed systems, meaning they are not universally
accessible, and they deal with a pre-defined set of information.
Note that the term "on-line" can be taken to mean either on-line on
the internet or WWW, or also on-line on a computer network, as with a
LAN or other system.
From AOL's (on-line!) version of Merriam Webster's dictionary:
"Library: 1 a : a place in which literary, musical, artistic, or
reference materials (as books, manuscripts, recordings, or films) are
kept for use but not for sale b : a collection of such materials"
For example, a public library may have an on-line catalog, but this
catalog will consist essentially of a database, which contains records
on the books/publications the library has, and not much more. Users
generally query this database for title, author, subject, publisher
and availability of the physical, underlying object.
Some library catalogues are highly specialized, as with medical school
on-line libraries, for example, where medical/biotechnology journal
articles are archived. This specialization is desirable if you already
know you want medical information only, rather than using the general
Internet and having to "weed out" unrelated topics.
There is really only one major similarity between Internet search
engines and on-line library catalogues:
They're both used to search (or query) computer networks for
information inputted by a system user.
After that, the differences become readily apparent:
1. On-line libraries are by definition more specific, since you are
searching within a pre-defined "library" of some sort. The Internet,
however, is almost limitless in scope.
2. On-line library catalogs are databases, and as such, search results
are powered by standard database languages and technology, namely SQL
(Structured Query Language). Internet search engines, however, rely on
algorithms (ordered sets of instructions executed by programs) to
return results.
[Side-bar: There are two main methods for search engines: The older,
more well known method relies on searching internet pages for
so-called "keywords" within the body of the page, the URL (address) of
the page, or within special HTML code written for the page, called
"meta-tags." A newer, more effective strategy for internet search, as
evidenced prominently by
www.google.com , [from Google, Inc.),
is to rank the search results on the number of links to other internet
pages, rather than solely basing the rankings on keywords. The results
are dramatic].
3. The internet is generally more "interactive," meaning, for example,
that you can "reach out" to others in your quest for information (as
you are doing here by using Google Answers--on the Internet). Also,
what's on the 'net today may not be tomorrow--the "information"
changes frequently. On-line library catalogs tend to be much less
dynamic and more static--what's there is there (books are replaced at
a much slower rate than web pages come and go), and you need to locate
it yourself (although if you consider actual human librarians offering
help on using the system to be part of an institution's "on-line
library catalog," then that's quite an interactive and dynamic
experience.
The following link is to "webCATS: Library Catalogs on the World
WideWeb" :
http://www.lights.com/webcats/
And here is one to "Libweb--Library WWW Servers," from Berkeley
Digital Library SunSITE :
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/
Here is a link to the "Librarian's Index to the Internet," lii.org:
http://www.lii.org/
If you would like specific information geared towards either more
technical or more general (user-influenced?) aspects of search
technology, please don't hesitate to ask for it in a Clarification.
Special note: No one tool can do all jobs. Some searches are best
completed by utilizing both the internet and specialized on-line
library catalogs. Technologies which integrate internet and library
catalog search tools will enable truly powerful research capabilities.
Google search strategy:
Keywords, "online library catalogs" ,
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=online+library+catalogs
,
"internet search engine technology"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=internet+search+engine+technology&btnG=Google+Search
,
"libraries online"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=libraries+online
,
"SQL"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=SQL ,
"search algorithms"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=search+algorithms&btnG=Google+Search
Good luck in continuing your inquiries!
~omniscientbeing-ga |
,
0 Comments
)