Library Geeks 011 - Gary Price

Gary Price of ask.com [1] is like that great reference librarian you remember from childhood or with whom you used to work who *always* knows seven great answers to any question that starts with "Where would I go to look for...", and tells you which ones to try, in which order, and how they complement each other, and is always right. Except Gary and his colleagues do this for everybody on the whole web through his sites ResourceShelf [2] and Docuticker [3], and for the past year through his job at Ask. Gary and I met several years ago, and we're new neighbors now, so we sat down together at a local coffee shop to catch up and to talk about his career and how he approaches his work.

There's a bit more ambient noise on this recording than usual, which means our recording levels are uneven sometimes, and I'm sorry about that. I hope you'll agree, though, that we have so much to learn from Gary about politely getting in the faces of our users to teach them what's out there and how to get the most out of it while saving them time, effort, and aggravation that it's worth listening through the noise.

Some of the many resources Gary mentions included:

• Price's List of Lists [4]
• Intute [5]
• the International Children's Digital Library [6]
• Ask City [7]
• Exalead [8]
• WebSite-Watcher [9]

This is one to listen to when you're sitting at your machine, or at least with a notepad nearby, because for everything listed above, he mentions at least two more resources worth your time and attention, and you'll want to try them out.

...oh!, and, I'd be remiss not to remind you that Gary just got married [10]! Mazel tov to husband and wife, and safe travels! Stay tuned for more episodes to feature Gary and news about the latest and greatest resources on the 'net.

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