Regarding the Dec. 10 op-ed article "Making quality the key to Web searches": This has long been an educational objective of school librarians. School librarians team with teachers to build research skills into the school curriculum. Librarians also help educate students to conduct relevant Web searches and to evaluate the authority of each site.
As site creators become more sophisticated, we will certainly develop more advanced searching methods, such as semantic technology. But perhaps our primary focus should be on helping the consumer recognize and retrieve quality information. Students need to be aware of how the Web world operates.
Librarians help students conduct searches for quality information by combining "key words" relevant to the topic. Librarians have been conducting advanced searching by "key words" and "subject headings" since the beginning of computer technology. Perhaps having individuals aware of how to find and evaluate information will determine the future of mankind. Let's invest in education as well as advanced technology.