Expert Searching in the Google Age

Terry Ann Jankowski, MLS, AHIP, FMLA is Librarian Emeritus at the Health Sciences Library, University of Washington and has over 40 years of experience as an expert searcher. She participated in the development of database searching from the slow dialup era to today’s high speed wifi access on the Web.Throughout her career, Ms. Jankowski has focused on database searching, reference services, user education and user services. She has authored several publications and presentations on these topics. She started her career at the University of Southern California Norris Medical Library as a reference librarian. At the University of Washington Health Sciences Library she began as a reference librarian and progressed through coordinating the online search service to managing the education program and finished as assistant director for user experience. An active volunteer in the Medical Library Association, she has served on a number of committees, editorial boards, and task forces usually in the searching or professional development arenas. Ms. Jankowski continues to revise and teach her course on expert searching.

In a tight 89 pages, Terry Ann Jankowski summarizes a semester-long reference course. Although written for the nascent health sciences librarian, Jankowski has covered the basics of reference: the interview, building a search, reviewing and evaluating results, running an improved search, managing citations, etc. Her long-time familiarity with health sciences means she focuses on what these steps would like in PubMed or Embase, but these skills are transferable to every reference interaction. . . .Overall, this work would be a nice supplement for health science librarians but also any head of reference/public services looking to keep a local collection of reference training materials.