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Information and Communication Technology Applications

Library scholars have acknowledged that libraries need to address the ways that they market their
Notes services if they are to compete with internet search engines and mitigate the risk of losing users.
This includes promoting the information literacy skills training considered vital across the library
profession. However, marketing of services has to be adequately supported financially in order to
be successful. This can be problematic for library services that are publicly funded and find it difficult
to justify diverting tight funds to apparently peripheral areas such as branding and marketing.

Google Books
Google Books presents a number of difficulties for libraries, particularly in terms of copyright and
proprietary issues. Writing in The Guardian in 2010, Robert McCrum criticised Google over its
digitisation project and highlighted the potential threat such “piracy” poses to both the revenue of
the publishing industry and the future quality of information resources.
The monopoly that Google is likely to have if Google Books is successful is a concern for libraries
due to its commercial status and has also attracted significant press coverage. In an article for the
The New York Review of Books in 2009, Robert Darnton lamented the missed opportunity that
libraries had to undertake a similar project which could have fairly compensated copyright holders
and would have been driven purely by a concern for the public good.
Other commentators, notably Michael Gorman, have questioned the utility of the entire enterprise.
In an 2004 article in the Los Angeles Times, Gorman argued that the mass digitisation of books,
particularly scholarly books, is an exercise in futility because a book must be read in full for the real
benefits to be felt, and people are unlikely to want to read that much on a screen or print out “500
unbound sheets”. Gorman’s position provoked significant criticism, particularly from bloggers
describing him as a ‘Luddite’, but he remained unmoved by their arguments in a subsequent
response.

Boolean Operators

Boolean Logic, also known as Boolean algebra, is a method for describing a set of objects or ideas.
It was invented in the 1800s by George Boolean, an English math teacher, but it is has become part
of the foundation for controlling computers. The binary 0 and 1 states are naturally related to
the true and false logic variables. By inserting key words, or operators, between terms in a statement
you can describe the relationship among the terms.

Boolean Logic

One of the most recent uses of Boolean logic is in search engines. By using the operators AND, OR
and NOT you can effectively communicate exactly what you are looking for to the search program.
Without a standard language such as this, everyone may have a different way of expressing the
same search request. Without this precision, searches would be less than effective, and retrieving
valuable information would be even more difficult. The better you know Boolean logic the more
effective your searches will be and the quicker you will be able to find what you are looking for.

Use of Boolean Logic

The most practical places for you to use Boolean logic are in search engines. An engine is a search
program located on a powerful computer. The engine allows you to search its database of the Internet.
The following are links to engines that allow users to use Boolean logic. There are many more
engines that allow Boolean but these are generally regarded as the best. If you have any doubts, you
can check the engine’s help section to learn specific syntax required for queries.

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