Roy Tennant on Google & Keeping a Librarians Perspective

I'm a big Roy Tennant fan. Beyond his Current Cites work (which just past the 15 year mark!), Roy's voice is just so even handed when it comes to digital collections, and just being a modern Librarian.

Published yesterday, Google, the Naked Emperor is Roy's most recent article from Library Journal's Digital Libraries. I was already aware of these critiques of Google, but for me, the more important aspect of the article is Roy's perspective. We must, as professional Librarians, give Google our most critical eye.

Just as Lawyers will offer their legal opinion on changing legislation and not let the day's Government go unquestioned, it is a Librarian's professional responsibility to offer no less. There should be no Librarians in the Google fanclub. Period. It's like being a Doctor and voicing support for a pharmaceutical co., or being one of those '1 in 4 Dentists that recommend Crest'. It's just that wrong.

BTW, Google's backlink command is still very troublesome. And given that Yahoo just announced the size of their database has surpassed Google (& regardless of any dispute), perhaps the tides are turning. I know I would appreciate, and I don't think I'm alone, a two horse race again.