Goodness yes!

	Earlier today I had an item from Centro de Estudios Aplicados en Economía which appeared to be a division of a company called DevTech.  Not only did I get the home page of the Center for Applied Studies in Economics (CASE), but I discovered that the author of the publication's author (listed as Jorge Sanguinetty) is the same as Sanguinetty, Jorge A., ǂd 1937- and he is the founder of DevTech.  I also located the document in PDF format on the company website, so I was able to include this in my 856 field.

	So, I used Google to:

	Confirm the author's identity
	Create an authority record for the Center for Applied Studies in Economics (CASE) and another authority record for the parent company. DevTech since I also needed to create a series authority record.
	Locate a link to an electronic version of the item.

	I catalog a lot of African and Latin American cataloging (all formats, particularly serials) and series authority work is so much easier when I can find homepages for corporate bodies, and often if the corporate body has changed names I can find a reference to that in the history section!  These organizations are often nearly impossible to find in "traditional" reference sources (and I was a traditional reference librarian for nearly 20 years before I began cataloging at UF).  Even when the information I find is not authoritative, I can get clues to name changes, locations of organizations, people associated with the organizations (and their email addresses! And I *will* write to them!) that help immensely with my cataloging.

	I have not been formally trained in any foreign language, but thanks to Google I can find information in nearly any Roman-alphabet language and get a good-enough translation.  And when you are cataloging Brazilian serials, "I don't know Portuguese" ain't gonna fly!

	My undergrad degree is in Chemistry & Math ... I use Google to look up Biology (hate hate hate biology), Business and Educational terminology that I would be lost on.  Once again, even if the information isn't authoritative, it can at least point me in the right direction.

	Before Google I used Dogpile at the reference desk, and have never looked back.  And all those reference skills have come in quite handy in the Cataloging Dept. (Err.... Cataloging and Metadata Dept.).

	Hank Young
	Cataloger
	Science and Social Sciences Cataloging Unit.
	University of Florida

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Carol H Jewell
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 12:29 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] Google survey

Colleagues,
First, please excuse duplication of this message.

For an article I am writing for "Against the Grain," I would like the
following information:

If you are a librarian or library staff member working in a Technical
Services position (i.e., database maintenance, cataloging, acquisitions,
serials), do you use Google in your daily work? If so, how? (Please be
specific.)

Replies offlist to me, please.

Thanks.
Carol
-------

Carol H. Jewell
Instructional Support Technician
University Libraries, LI-B35
University at Albany, State University of New York
1400 Washington Ave.
Albany, NY. 12222
cjewell@uamail.albany.edu