Here’s a great informational editorial from a North Carolina librarian about librarians helping users with online research. Maybe this is the type of thing we all should be writing for our local newspapers?
“Librarians don’t fear Google or the next big innovation. We are adept at assimilating new technology into our repertoire of skills and tools. It only makes us stronger than ever.
Google in the hands of a trained librarian — now that’s a powerful combination.”
Re: Librarians v. Google
Here’s the text of the article so you don’t have to register with the site before reading it:
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To navigate seas of data, pick librarian over Google
They have the training and access to locate the information you need
JODY RISACHER
Fayetteville Observer
The growth of home Internet use and the ease of finding information through search engines, such as the ever-popular Google, have led some to predict that libraries are headed the way of the Dodo and the dinosaur. But perhaps reports of the library’s demise are a bit premature.
A recent study calculated the output of new data in 2002 at five exabytes. To grasp this numerical concept, think of half a million new libraries the size of the Library of Congress. That’s just one year’s worth of new information, added to all previously compiled world knowledge. Most people do not have the skills, time or energy to deal with the overload. Librarians excel in navigating seas of data to discover the right and relevant information.
If students can identify the right search terms for Google to pull enough information to complete an assignment (librarians receive lots of calls from students who need this type of assistance), there are still serious pitfalls in relying on any commercial resource.
It takes skill to evaluate the credibility of information provided by search engine software. Anyone (and his brother) can post a Web site claiming to provide accurate and reliable information. Librarians are trained in evaluation of information sources. They also know the secrets of the Web, and how to find the information buried beneath the accessible surface.
Users of the “free” Internet might not realize that high-quality information is increasingly a commodity — with a price tag. It costs (dearly) to access rich databases.
N.C. libraries have pooled funding to create NCLIVE, a collection of top-notch databases that citizens can use in their libraries or from home. A democratic society that adheres to Thomas Jefferson’s vision of an informed citizenry cannot limit access of information to those who can afford to pay.
Libraries have become integral in bridging the digital divide, allowing equitable access to all citizens. According to an editorial written by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates for The Seattle Times, “investing in public libraries is an investment in the nation’s future.”
According to a Department of Labor report, future U.S. workers will need a high level of literacy to stay competitive in the world economy.
Trends forecast by the Futurist Magazine suggest that job training and retraining will be crucial in the decades ahead. If we acknowledge learning as a lifelong pursuit, we’d better support an infrastructure for it. Public libraries are as critical to our educational foundation as schools, universities and colleges.
Libraries will continue to play an important role in fostering literacy among the very young. Exposure to a book and its artwork through the medium of a library storytime is an irreplaceable building block of early language development.
Parents should also use the tools of computer games and electronic books with, literally, all the bells and whistles, but bring children to the library for the primary human experience of literature (and take piles of books home!). It’s a lifelong gift to them.
Despite the illusion promoted by commercial interests that technology has supplanted our need for physical contact, humans still appear to have a deep-seated need to gather for civic purposes. The public library provides a community meeting place and a forum for the free exchange of ideas. Come to the library to meet with others to talk about books, opinions and ideas.
In a recent national survey conducted by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, 67 percent of Americans reported they believed that having access to a public library in a community is “very valuable.” It appears that most Americans value this institution that has served individuals and communities for generations.
Librarians don’t fear Google or the next big innovation. We are adept at assimilating new technology into our repertoire of skills and tools. It only makes us stronger than ever.
Google in the hands of a trained librarian — now that’s a powerful combination.
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Jody Risacher is deputy director of the Cumberland County Public Library & Information Center, 300 Maiden Lane, Fayetteville, NC 28301-5032.
Re: Librarians v. Google
I have read articles by librarians about Google and other search engines, largely Google-bashing, which is based on fear or lack of understanding or appreciation of the superior searching capabilities of Google. I think the issue of Google and libraries have been too simplified due to this fear and even professional jealousy. It is hard to understand why one has to “pick librarian over Google”. It is not a matter of picking librarian over Google or picking Google over librarian. It is a matter of using both for the maximization of information retrieval.
I agree that Google and librarians/information professionals are a powerful combination. But the title of the article is exclusive and does not favor Google. I favor neither. They are both needed in the quest for search of information. One cannot be discounted over the other. Both the powerful searching capabilities of Google and the human intellectual capabilities to devise the search strategy are essential in successful information retrieval.
I have read articles by librarians commenting on the deficiencies of Google. Google is not perfect, in that it won’t retrieve everything, and sometimes even not-so-relevant information. Similarly, library systems don’t retrieve everything either, since some information (metadata) is omitted when cataloguing. Therefore even though the library has certain information, it can go unretrieved and unnoticed. For example, if one is after a particular poem and this poem happens to be in a book called “The best of Australian poems” and this book contains 200 poems, the cataloguer is most unlikely to enter the list of the poems in the contents (505) field as it is too time-consuming. Therefore, this information (metadata) is not retrieved and assumed that the library does not have this poem. Then, one naturally turns to Google to search for this particular poem since the library (supposedly) does not have it.
In addition, libraries are restricted by the archaic nature of the library systems that are based on MARC. Many librarians (“who don’t still believe that the earth is flat”) now recognise MARC’s limitations and disadvantages. Just check out these:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA256611
xmlmarc.stanford.edu/Speech.htm
It is naive to believe that Google provides all the answers or that it replaces libraries. It also has to be recognised that libraries can no longer effectively exist without Google or the internet. No one can really doubt the value of Google and the internet to libraries, when it enhances libraries. At the same time, it has to be realised that libraries are not dinosaurs (yet). Only if librarians relax and stop “Google-bashing” and instead fully embrace Google and use it to our advantage.