Librarian 1 Google 0 – Bush pilot bio

Posted on September 20, 2006 by alaskanlibrarian

Recently a patron asked for help in locating a book by or about the famous Alaskan bush pilot Don Shelton who flew out of Talkeetna in the 1960s. The patron had searched extensively on Amazon and Google but was unable to locate a book.

So I tried WorldCat via FirstSearch and found a Don Shelton, but none of the listings were remotely aviation related. So I looked in the book Wings over Denali and found a Don Sheldon who was a very well regarded pilot who flew out of Talkeetna during the time my patron indicated. Going back to WorldCat, it was easy to generate a list of Don Sheldon related titles. My total time spent was about ten minutes and the patron was delighted.

This is a case where search engines fail because they are literal. If my patron had really mangled the name, Google might have suggested Sheldon as a spelling. But since Shelton is a perfectly acceptable spelling of a last name, it didn’t suggest any alternatives for her.

For my part, I wouldn’t have known where to look unless I was familar with my collection and knew it had materials on Alaskan aviators. So I really believe that this was a question that needed a human touch.

Librarians save time and effort. Spread the word.

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2 Responses

  1. Jim, on September 21st, 2006 at 4:02 am Said:

    Interesting! As a sidenote, oddly enough, I have an automated daily search on the word “Talkeetna”. So your entry was picked up. When I saw the spelling “Don Shelton” I clicked on the entry thinking I’d see what it was about and give the correct spelling if it would have been helpful.

    So even though that isn’t a reliable option, in this case, a human would have given the correct spelling and mentioned “Wager With The Wind” as book about Don Sheldon.

    Cheers!

  2. Daniel, on September 21st, 2006 at 4:23 am Said:

    Thanks for stopping by with typical Alaskan helpfulness and cheer! And I’ve setup a bookmark in Whole Wheat Radio in Real Player. I look forward to listening more.

    Feel free to shoot me interesting news about Talkeetna. My reader base is tiny, but I love writing about our great state!

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