The incredible rate at which technology has developed and made available to the masses has dramatically affected the library profession. Prior to the meteoric rise of technology, a reference library was seen as the “gatekeeper of information,” meaning that they were the link between patron and knowledge. However, with information based sites like Wikipedia, Google scholar, or any search for that matter; any one can create and post what they think is quality information; no matter what their expertise or qualifications are.
Potential library patrons consult these sights on a routine basis, and as a result, reference librarians are becoming less important and not fully utilized. Terry Casey, former president of the Ohio Library Trustees Association did a recent study that best articulates this point. When asked, "When you're looking for information or answers to questions, where do you first look, call, or turn to for that information?" at the end of December 1998, 25% of respondents said they went to the public library, while 23% said they went to the Internet. The same question, put in June 2000, revealed a giant shift: 35% chose the Internet first, but only 12% went to the public library.
Technology and the ease of transference of information, has created an influx of information that has directly affected libraries in that library patrons now prefer the quicker and easier way for obtaining information. Although there is a greater variety of information available, who determines whether or not this information is factual or opinionated.
Technology and Information: The Dysfunctional Relationship
It would be almost impossible to argue against the benefits of technology, however, as it relates to information and its dissemination, technology can be viewed as both a blessing and a curse. Sites like Google and Wikipedia are becoming more and more prevalent in the average students’ research repertoire. This poses a potential problem because often times search engines, and more specifically Wikipedia, return results that are from non-scholarly entities. Furthermore, since it has been widely proven that those who use search engines rarely view the second page of results; users often accept the first few resources they are given no matter where they come from or how good a quality they are. There is a correlation between the information that is returned and the user’s willingness to accept information that is “good enough,” as Stephen Bell writes in his article, “Submit or Resist: Librarianship in the Age of Google.” Technology has enabled users to retrieve information so quickly that they don’t mind where it comes from or if it is from a reliable source, so much as they care that they have it in a timely manner that is conducive to their study habits.
But as we all know, research can be a daunting time consuming ordeal that requires multiple sources and just as many points of view. Having said that, technology, with its shortcomings, has significantly contributed to the spread of quality scholarly information. In an interview with William Lefevre, Head of Reference at the Reuther Library, concerning this issue he is quoted as saying, “90% of the Reuther’s reference questions are answered online and they come from cities, states and countries from around the world…Technology has enabled the Reuther to put its holdings on the web, and make them available for anyone around the world to enjoy whether it’s a high school student in California or a PhD candidate in China, the information is there for any one to use.” Technology allows repositories or, academic libraries, like the Reuther to expand their patron base and promote their collections while at the same time enhancing scholarly work by means of providing primary sources. Online catalogs and archival finding aids are tools used by libraries and repositories to meet the changing standards by which people do research, and their importance today is immeasurable because they offer the patron online access to their collection. If the resource is deemed important enough for further review, then the patron will ultimately come into the library and review their others sources while they are there.
The impact that technology has had on information is difficult to track, and almost as difficult to improve given the vast quantities in existence. However, through proper patron education and the continued stressed importance of scholarly academic resources by teachers, libraries and museums, information can lessen the ill effects technology has had on it.
Sources:
Bantin, Phillip. Electronic Records Management-A Review o f the Work of a Decade and a Reflection on Future Directions. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. May 2002. Volume 71, Supplement 34.
Bell, Steven J. Submit or Resist: Librarianship in the Age of Google. American Libraries. Chicago: October 2005. vol. 36, Iss 9; pg. 68
Lefevre, William. Interview. April 2, 2008. Office Interview. Wayne State University, Reuther Library. Detroit, Michigan.
Discussion Questions
Can the quality of information ever be regulated, or should the matter be left for the patron to decide
How does one determine if information is credible?
Should libraries compete with search engines, or make their information available through them?
Have your research habits changed? If so, in what way?
The impact that technology has had on information is difficult to track, and almost as difficult to improve given the vast quantities in existence. However, through proper patron education and the continued stressed importance of scholarly academic resources by teachers, libraries and museums, information can lessen the ill effects technology has had on it.
Sources:
Bantin, Phillip. Electronic Records Management-A Review o f the Work of a Decade and a Reflection on Future Directions. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. May 2002. Volume 71, Supplement 34.
Bell, Steven J. Submit or Resist: Librarianship in the Age of Google. American Libraries. Chicago: October 2005. vol. 36, Iss 9; pg. 68
Lefevre, William. Interview. April 2, 2008. Office Interview. Wayne State University, Reuther Library. Detroit, Michigan.
Discussion Questions
Can the quality of information ever be regulated, or should the matter be left for the patron to decide
How does one determine if information is credible?
Should libraries compete with search engines, or make their information available through them?
Have your research habits changed? If so, in what way?
17 comments:
How does one determine if information is credible?
When going to sites such as Wikipedia, you should look around to see how the information is put onto the sites. If you see a link that says “Donate to Wikipedia” then you should not use information from them as a credible source because anyone can put information out there whether it is correct or not. Using the .gov or .edu sites to me is more credible than going to some of the other sites out there. These portals are regulated by government agencies to ensure that only correct information is put onto the websites. Using links referenced on a credible site such as WSU’s library site are more than likely credible as well and should be accessed with confidence.
Have your research habits changed? If so, in what way?
Taking the LIS 6010 has given me much insight into the error of my ways when it comes to searching. I must admit that I was an avid user of Google searches, while occasionally using library search engines to do my research. I now know that what I was doing was wrong. I now go to WSU’s search engine to do the majority of my research, or try to find more .gov or .edu sites to get my information from.
Should libraries compete with search engines, or make their information available through them?
As stated in the post by James, “…those who use search engines rarely view the second page of results; users often accept the first few resources they are given no matter where they come from or how good a quality they are.” Therefore I think that libraries should try to make their information available through search engines and try to optimize their website and have it appear within the first three pages of hits . This way they may have a better chance of the random viewer accessing their links for information. However I still think that it is imperative that librarians, schools officials, etc. continue to put the word out about actual library websites and the benefits of starting there when conducting a search.
Sources:
Abrahm, Stephen. Information Outlook.
Competing with Google in a Special Library. November 2005. Retrieved April 10, 2008.
Can we ever regulate information? That depends on what level you’re talking about; I assume the context here refers to the arena of the library. Can information be regulated at a societal level, no. It infringes upon the basic human rights of freedom of speech and self-expression. Trying to do this you eventually end up like the Chinese Government, having to brutally stomp out all other avenues of information. And if you do try to regulate, who chooses good information and the bad information? We see this with Fox News, everyone, save a few Republican insiders, understand that Fox News does not present a balanced objective product. But you have to understand the context of US contemporary politics and the history of the network and Rupert Murdoch to be able to properly judge the value of the information presented there. So the characteristics of being a mass-media outlet or a government do not guarantee good information. So can we trust the all important letters after someone's name and the world of academia? I recently read about a group that promotes the teaching of intelligent design that was founded by a man doctor in nutritional biology. I think that speaks for itself about blindly trusting academians. So back to the library, how can we regulate information? We can't. We must let a thousand flowers bloom and trust ourselves at picking the appropriate ones. We have to stay vigilant, compare sources, have a basic understanding of the context and make informed choices for our patrons; Ultimately this is and always has been the purpose of a librarian.
A good book on the subject is:
Keen, Andrew. The Cult of the Amateur, Doubleday, 2007
I'm sorry Jeremy, and everyone for that matter, for the phrasing of my discussion question. What I meant was can the quality of information be placed under a universal standard that is accepted by the scholarly world. For sites like wikipedia and google scholar, there biggest deficancies come from their lack of reputable authors which in terms diminishes their reputation as quality scholarly sources. So back to the question, is there a way that these kinds of sites can become more scholarly through their content, and peer postings?
I came across an article called "Google's Moon Shot: The Quest for the Universal Library" by Jeffrey Toobin. It is in The New Yorker magazine, Feb. 5, 2007, pp. 30-35. Not sure how Google is going to deal with the copyright issues involved but I love the idea of scanning "every book ever published ...[and making] the full texts searchable..." (p. 30). Exciting stuff.
My research has changed since I see how easy it is to add to web sites. I now look for an accredable name or site for information.
Re: deep web searches: I may have posted these resources previously but they are worth a second look. Courtesy of several folks on a listserv I subcribe to.
from Heidi Williams:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/InvisibleWeb.html
from Michael Sensiba, WSU:
http://websearch.about.com/od/invisibleweb/a/invisibleweb.htm
http://websearch.about.com/od/invisibleweb/The_Deep_Web_Find_Out_More_About_The_Deep_Web_Deep_Web_Search.htm
I think it is an interesting point about the shift to the Internet for information. For example, I had a stomach ache last weekend and I went to webmd first before the doctor. I think America is a society of instant gratification and the library profession must shift to meet this demand for quick information. We know we risk confrontation with quick information that is untrustworthy, but maybe that is a point of view for the patron who may have a different perspective.
I don't think that libraries should compete with search engines. Instead I think the distinctions between search engines and libraries should be made clear. If this point was made more clearly to the general public, people may understand the value of information from a library rather than from a random website. I'm still thinking about the best way to get this point across. So far, the best I can come up with is education to the public to get them into the library and then prove the benefit of the library once they are through the door. However, I do see the benefit in all those 'random websites' - they are perfect when you need information quickly, especially if the information is not for a matter of life and death.
Can the quality of information ever be regulated, or should the matter be left for the patron to decide?
First Amendment issues aside, I think we're heading down a slippery slope if we give people the option to stop thinking critically for themselves. A much better strategy to handle questionable information on the internet would be to teach patrons how to figure it out for themselves.
How does one determine if information is credible?
Like other people have said, starting with an educational institution is generally a safe bet. Even government or educational sites, however, can include questionable or unreliable search results. A recent example of this is the deactivation of the word "abortion" as a search word in a reproductive health database maintained by Johns Hopkins University and funded by the federal government (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89486048).
Should libraries compete with search engines, or make their information available through them?
I'm not sure they should compete with search engines--that's an awfully huge undertaking, and the resources could probably be better spent elsewhere. It would definitely be beneficial for libraries to make their information available to as many people as possible, and search engines open up a world of potential new patrons.
Have your research habits changed? If so, in what way?
Not really--I've always been critical and selective about internet sources. I have no problem starting with Google when I'm looking for random trivia or recipes, but I hesitate to use it extensively for research.
How does one determine if information is credible?
I look for sites related to libraries, government departments, educational sites, or sites that I know are reputable and related to my topic. I occasionally use Wikipedia as a starting place, then find reputable sources to verify and expand on the information. I also try to avoid using sites that are sales-based, since their info may be skewed in order to make a profit.
Have your research habits changed? If so, in what way?
I am a Googler for personal research, but I usually explore more than one page. Since returning to school, my research now includes searching online journals, using several different search engines, and looking through (gasp) books and journals/magazines.
Great questions and topic James. How does one determine if information is credible? Can we make the assumption that what is in print is or was more credible? There is a greater likelihood of course because generally to get published you had to go through an editor at a publishing firm. Online journals can state if they are peer reviewed. The sheer explosion of ideas on the web is amazing and yet that explosion will only continue to make it harder to distinguish what is credible. It seems to be a double edged sword. For example, it is exciting that an “amateur” historian who may have great knowledge on a subject can publish his knowledge on the web and help many people and yet we are rightly saying you have to be careful about your sources because another amateur historian may be “full of it” so to speak. It is for the most part impossible to know for every source which ones are credible and which are not. And just because someone’s work or ideas don’t show up in what we might consider a credible source doesn’t mean they aren’t credible. So how do we know what is credible or just as importantly as librarians, how do help people to be more critical or to understand that we can still be very helpful to them; point them toward credible sources or be that critical eye or just plain save them some time by getting them to right "place"? Do most people care about credible sources? I think that most students, especially in high school and undergrad, only care because their teachers care. I also believe people really enjoy finding the answer by themselves and that is not necessarily all bad, though if our library web pages are useful and easy to navigate they can use them and still have the feeling of finding things on their own.
Can the quality of information ever be regulated, or should the matter be left for the patron to decide?
The quality of information can never be regulated. Even now many news agencies reports things that are patently false and yet many people regard the Associated Press as a credible source. In the past doctors recommended cigarettes in advertisements, but now we know that smoking is incredibly poor for one’s health. Even highly esteemed professionals can be wrong. Today’s quality information may be tomorrow’s folly.
Additionally, there are many people who believe in outrageous conspiracy theories. When others point out the flaws in the information surrounding such theories, believers dismiss their observations because they take what they have read to be the truth. So even if an outsider has good intentions, quality information can only be determined by the reader. If you have read it and believe it to be valuable and true, then it is.
Can the quality of information ever be regulated, or should the matter be left for the patron to decide?
** I don't believe at this time that we can regulate the quality of information. I'm not really sure if we could ever be able to regulate it, at least not on the internet. There are just too many millions of webpages that would have to be manually filtered by a programmer. Plus, domain names are bought and sold on a daily basis, thus the information (and its quality) could possibly be changed daily. There is no way anyone or any programming company could ever keep up. I see it as the patron's responsibility to determine what information is credible online. I am always more than happy to help people to find quality sources, but I also prefer to show THEM how to find quality sources, too.
How does one determine if information is credible?
**First, I visit the site in full to check for spelling errors, etc. Then, I look to other sites to see if the information matches. The more sources I can find that say the same thing, the more likely I am to use that information. I also try to find articles and information through library websites (WSU, GDL, databases) as they can also be more likely to be credible.
Should libraries compete with search engines, or make their information available through them?
**I think that libraries should work together with search engines to help the patron/browser to get quality information.
Have your research habits changed? If so, in what way?
**Mine haven't. I still use multiple forms of searching. I go in to libraries, I still search online. Nothing has really changed for me.
Meagan Brown
Internet searches should be implemented into a library’s set of search tolls. It happened to me when I needed to find a newspaper article for a patron. I went the newspapers website, USA Today, to find an article. I knew the author, the day it was published and some keywords from the title. Should be easy to find right? It wasn’t, and after several searches using different search patterns and techniques, no results were found. Frustrated, I used Google to search for it. Using a basic search of some of the keywords, it popped up on the first result page. Google did a better job of indexing USA Today’s own website they did. One of the key factors in using technology is using good technology. Google simply has superior search technology, and many websites, including Wayne State’s, use Google to index their own site. Why would you not want to use the best technology available and that technology is Google.
How does one determine if information is credible?
This has always been a question that I wondered about. I found a handout provided by the University of Michigan-Dearborn Mardigian Library that explains how to determine if information from the web is valid. The link is as follows: http://library.umd.umich.edu/research/guides/eval_internet.pdf
Can the quality of information ever be regulated, or should the matter be left for the patron to decide
That matter should be left to the patrons to decide what they believe the quality of the information is.
How does one determine if information is credible?
I think the patron has to see where the resources come from and make a inteligent decision on if the information is credible.
Should libraries compete with search engines, or make their information available through them?
I think we should work with search engines not compete with them.
This post reminds me of Mary V.'s book review on amateurs being able to publish information. Her book talked about a need for "gatekeepers" to moderate the publication of information. I disagree, however. "Credibility" is in the eye of the beholder. Academia has standards for credibility, but if I choose to read and trust Wikipedia for my own purposes, that is my business and my decision. I think that limiting publication ability in light of new technology would violate people's First Amendment rights. Patrons ultimately need to decide what is credible. Once an authority starts deciding that for them, someone's rights will be violated.
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