Written by: Monika Seymour Saturday, July 17, 2010
The Niagara Falls Public Library is open as per our summer schedule and all systems are fine! We have received several calls and emails this week because the Niagara Falls Public Library in Niagara Falls, NEW YORK has had to close its doors for nearly a week now, since during this extended “heat wave” unfortunately, their air conditioning system has given up and the heat is oppressive! This is not the first time I have been called in error, to comment to the press or other researchers on Niagara Falls New York affairs. Our Reference staff are often contacted with Niagara Falls, N Y questions. Believe it or not, many people do not seem to realize there are 2 City’s of Niagara Falls! We were aware of the predicament of our sister Library, because we subscribe to the web content monitoring service offered by the Goggle search engine. On a daily basis, we receive updates called “Alerts” whenever the Goggle Search Engine finds a new occurrence of “Niagara Falls Public Library “ within its data base. Of course, it cannot discriminate whether it is Niagara Falls, Ontario or New York, so we need to filter out what really is relevant or not. The search engine only matches the results to the terms we have chosen, and just as important to remember, to content found in their proprietary database. You might wonder that I do not add Ontario to my terms, to limit the results – my experience is that I do not get all results, unless the whole series of words is found. More relevant results are produced using the simplest search and then I have to choose what is appropriate. Such are the vagaries and limitations of the Internet and search engines and more importantly why the Internet in and of itself will never likely “replace” the neighbourhood Public Library. Although Internet service is offered free to our community, at all library locations, many, many of our users require the assistance of trained staff to wade through the masses of results or information they retrieve in simple searching. Besides, we like to know what is going on at our “twin” library! There are still spots open in the Story Times – Learning with Books program for 3-6 year olds. The second session of this pre-schooler begins the weeks of July 26 and continues for 4 weeks through the week of August 16. Register today online or contact us for more information at any of our 4 libraries.
0 comment(s) so far...