Google Co-op does reference

I have been curious about the Google Co-op tool since I first heard about it. I wondered where Google would take it, what they’re up to with this tool. In its earliest implementations they seemed to be angling toward a health information portal, though the tool can be used for any content. I thought about how we at ALA might use it, and put it on my “Someday” list. One thought was to gather up ALA’s various best of the Web picks.

Bill Drew did so with the Reference and User Services Association’s best free reference Web sites. In the past, I have ripped these from the RUSQ journal when I came across one and filed it away at home thinking I would one day bookmark those that might be of future use. Now I can throw that folder away.

Contributing editors of Guide to Reference are selecting free Web sites as well as print and fee-based databases. Editors of Reference Sources for Small and Medium-Sized Libraries have done so with their manuscript in-house. Perhaps these sources could be lumped in with RUSA’s best. ALA’s librarian, Karen Muller, created a Google Co-op search engine Librarian’s E-Library.

Should the Association of Library Service for Children copy their Great Web Sites for Kids into Google Co-op?

Ben Bunnell of Google included Google Co-op Custom Search Engine in his Midwinter 2007 presentation. He suggested Google Co-op custom search engine as an alternative to creating lists of links , citing Real Climate as an example. You can place the search box and results on your Web site and specify or prioritize sites to search. At Real Climate, Google custom search engine is a radio button choice under a standard search box. Another possibility for free content of Guide to Reference.