Book Companion:

Librarian's Guide to Online Searching

Suzanne S. Bell

Errata & Updates

Chapter 4, Exercise 1 (p. 86).

When written, this little example worked beautifully, but since then, Wilson must have tweaked their thesaurus or the search algorithm in it or something, because it certainly doesn't work now! Instead of "the perfect heading" - now you get "no results" - not even suggestions. This is so embarrassing. Honestly, I am not an airhead or a slacker… it just changed on me. Sorry, everyone.

Chapter 5, Web of Science section (p. 108).

The appearance of the interface changed somewhat just as we went to press, but it's not a whole lot and shouldn't faze anyone. What agonized me was that along with the facelift, they changed a smallish but significant thing: phrases are now indicated with double quotes (the standard web search convention). Making Sidebar 5.2, "No need to use quotes around phrases" absolutely wrong. Ouch.

Chapter 5, Web of Science section (p. 110).

Fact-checking error on my part: the reference to the "classic book by James Watson and Francis Crick" should read only "the classic book by James Watson." Watson and Crick wrote a lot of journal articles on this topic, but The Double Helix was Watson's work alone. Never trust anything anyone tells you, even your husband the (computer) scientist…

Final Web of Science note:

Another interface change is coming, and will be a significant change. Stay tuned.

Chapter 8, Exercise 2 (p. 193).

Bad choice of words: I say that the "Wall Street Journal is an excellent source for this type of article, and is good about listing the sources for its figures." Rather than "listing," a better term would be "mentioning" - I don't want to give the impression that the Journal cites its sources, because of course it doesn't. It does usually mention where the numbers came from (what agency, organization, etc.) in the text of the article, though.