Hakia Aims To Woo Librarians

Melek Pulatkonak explained the philosophy behind the semantic search engine Hakia with a line that may resonate with librarians: “What's popular may not be credible, and what's credible may not be popular.” Pulatkonak is COO of Hakia, which emphasizes content and context over strict relevancy and popularity ranking (the Google-style approach), and recently spoke with LJ about the search engine's open call for librarians to help bolster its “credible sites” results section.

To entice librarians to contribute their expertise in vetting information sites, Hakia has started what it calls the “Librarian's Corner,” where librarians and information professionals can submit resources that meet Hakia's criteria, including peer-reviewed information, no commercial bias, currency of content, and source authenticity in terms of original material.

The company is even offering prizes to sweeten the deal, with each “credible site” submission making librarians eligible for a raffle of $500 worth of books donated to their library, or one of two $1000 conference grants given to users who submit the most URLs.

Currently, the “credible sites” section only returns results on queries relating to health and the environment. But Pulatkonak expects to add areas such as finance, law, travel, and automotive in the coming months based on sources suggested by participating librarians and information professionals. The goal of the program, Pulatkonak added, is the same as what librarians' reference goals have always been: to identify trustworthy and current resources with “unbiased information that has no sponsorship tied to it.”