Compare Search Engines

Phil Bradley lists eight search engine comparison sites in a post on his blog. Enter your search terms and the site runs them against various search engines—you decide which is best. Most compare only two engines, but some do more.

Sites mentioned are: Blind Search, Bingandgoogle, Bingle, Tripleme, GrabAll, Scour, Searchboth, and Soovle. Personally, I like Blind Search best, but you decide.

URLs:
Bradley’s post: http://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/2009/06/search-engine-comparisons.html
http://blindsearch.fejus.com
http://www.Bingandgoogle.com
http://bingle.pwnij.com
http://www.tripleme.com
http://www.graball.com
http://www.scour.com
http://us.searchboth.net
http://www.soovle.com

A GREAT USER EVALUATION ARTICLE

“From ‘How satisfied are you?’ to ‘Tell us what matters’: user evaluation at the Wellcome Library,” by Judy Henwood and Frances Norton, finally asks the right question to get good user satisfaction feedback. SCONUL Focus (Society of College, National, and University Libraries) (43):64-65, Spring 2008.

URL: http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/newsletter/43/17.pdf

WHICH WIKI TO USE?

If you’re contemplating creating a wiki, you are probably confused as to which software program you should use. Never fear, WikiMatrix is here to help. This site, from CosmoCode, a German software company, allows use to make side-by-side, feature-by-feature comparison of the most popular wiki programs. You can also print out all the data for just one or two wikis. Points of comparison include: cost, storage, limits, spam and security features, support, common features, special features, linking, syntax, usability, statistics available, output formats, media and file handling, and examples of formats. It is most impressive—and free. Highly recommended.

URL: http://www.wikimatrix.org

NEW BOOK FOR MEDICAL LIBRARIANS...AND OTHERS

Using Benchmarking, Needs Assessment, Quality Improvement, Outcome Measurement, and Library Standards: A How-To-Do-It Manual by Rosalind Farnam Dudden, Neal-Schuman and Medical Library Association, 2007, ISBN 1-55570-604-5, book and CD-ROM.

Order by April 30, 2007, and receive $15 off! (cannot be combined with other offers)
Special Price: $70.00, plus $9.25 shipping and handling.

After April 30:
MLA member: $76.50 plus $9.25 shipping and handling
Nonmembers: $85.00 plus $9.25 shipping and handling

Evaluation tools are an essential part of improving service and proving the library’s value. This easy-to-understand how-to outlines the use of five of the most important and popular methods of evaluation:
• Needs assessments
• Performance improvements
• Benchmarking
• Library standards
• Outcome measures
Each chapter includes step-by-step guidance for defining goals, staffing the project, developing a timeline, collecting data, analyzing findings, and sharing results. The five different methods are illustrated with real-world examples, showing what libraries evaluated and how findings helped change their organization. Invaluable managerial tools including checklists, forms, worksheets, and more — all reproducible from the CD-ROM — help you implement the methods easily and affectively. Managers in all types of libraries will find this an informative and practical resource for improving their organization.

URL: Order at: http://www.neal-schuman.com/db/0/590.html