Reading #5: Information Navigation 101

According to the article, more and more students use technology every passing day. But while these students may be HTML wizards and texting masters, they are lacking some critical skills. Many are ignorant to today's research methods and how to properly use technology to access databases full of scholarly sources. The article suggests that students are drowning in information. Since 1995 there has been a jump in websites from 18,000 to more than 100 million. And with so many websites a popular search engine was bound to come along, and that search engine was Google. It is just far more convenient to Google something than to go into a library or it's database to search for information.

Because of so many students that are lacking in research skills, there has been a nationwide push for what is called "information literacy." This movement was spearheaded by Cal State over a decade ago. The article goes on to say that information literacy didn't gain a foothold in the academic population until 1989, when the American Library Association said it was imperative that schools add programs to boost information literacy. The information literacy movement has gained a foothold in education for sure. In 1994 only 22 percent of colleges had faculty that could teach the subject, but now just about every college has at least one faculty member to do it.

Apparently, some librarians aren't too pleased with how their fellow librarians are treating this movement though. They feel that many of the followers of Information Literacy are misinterpreting it. They also feel that followers give the movement some kind of "cultish zeal" because they feel it is so new and exciting.

With the growing importance of information literacy, students are beginning to be tested with standardized tests to check their knowledge on the subject. Hopefully with more testing will come greater understanding of the finer art of researching via technology.


I think this article gave great insight into the problem with students relying too much on Google and Wikipedia. They don't use the real and reliable resources that the library has to offer. It is true that many students don't even know about those resources though and are merely drowning in a pool of vast knowledge on the web. With proper guidance and knowledge, I feel that librarians and other faculty can improve this nation's information literacy issue within the next decade by using a slew of programs for students and standardized tests to test their knowledge.


One thing's for sure though, Google is most certainly making us more dumb.

Reading 4: Infodieting

According to this article, search engines are the bane of the librarian. More and more students are turning to google to do their research while abandoning libraries altogether. The attitude for many students is, "I had no idea we had a library, but why would I ever want to go to one when I have the internet at my disposal?" This line of thinking is exactly what is causing headaches for countless librarians apparently. A man by the name of James Morris has created the term "infobesity" in regards to googling for research. It is low-level searching that yields low level results which in turn creates sub-par papers. The trick he feels, is to get students to go from infobesity to infodieting.

With the idea of infodieting comes the argument for making school databases more like google. Students apparently don't like school databases due to their cumbersome nature and odd manner of structure. For a while librarians have been crying out to the database producing companies to create more user friendly databases, and up til now those cries have fallen upon deaf ears. But now the company ProQuest has unveiled a more user friendly database. Another important step towards "googlization" is the RedLightGreen project, which has an interface much like google's and also makes suggestions for the user to get better results.

Another step for ensuring that students still use the library is having initiatives in place that will make professors have their students have to find research material that is in the library. This could lead to more information literacy of students and an increase in the usage of the library.

I for one think that changing the format of most of the databases is a wonderful idea. It is far easier to type in a google-esque interface than to worry about various fields and to deal with selecting "and" or "or" among other things. On top of this, having professors make their students actually do research in the library would increase the traffic in the library quite a bit. Especially if the interfaces used for finding information were simplified in a manner that is easy for all to understand. If things don't change, this infobesity issue will only become more and more prominent.