Thursday, February 23, 2006

Google Librarian Newsletter

I found this referenced in an obscure Flikr photoset and managed to dig up two issues. There is a "sign up" link if anyone is interested. Frankly, it is pretty lame.

December 2005 Issue

January 2006 Issue


From the first issue:

Welcome to the first edition of the Google Librarian Newsletter.

This newsletter was conceived at the 2005 ALA conference in Chicago, where Google hosted a booth in the exhibit hall. We spent three days chatting with librarians about Google: what you liked, what you didn't like, and where you saw opportunities to work together to help people find useful, relevant information.

In an effort to keep those conversations going, we're launching this newsletter. Consider it a first step toward what we hope will be a long and mutually beneficial relationship. We anticipate sending it out quarterly, with the occasional special feature as appropriate.

This introductory issue features an article written to address one of the most frequent questions we've heard from librarians: How does Google index the web, and, more important, how does it rank the results? Matt Cutts, an engineer in our Quality group, explains the basics of indexing and sheds some light on some of the algorithms we use to determine where a site should appear on results pages. He also suggests exercises school librarians can do to help students better understand how Google works.

But this newsletter wouldn't be much of a conversation if it were written solely by folks at Google. Future issues will feature articles contributed by librarians and library supporters, links to library-related web sites, and updates on Google products and services that can help you in your work. We invite you to send us your thoughts: your questions about Google, your suggestions for articles, and your stories of how librarians use and keep up with technology on the job. We'll do our best to use your feedback to make each issue more relevant and useful to the library community.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned.

Jodi Healy
Manager, Library Partnership Team

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