By: Joy L.

Joy L. — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:07:37 +0000

Kudos to Ms. Scribner! As a librarian at a university library, I totally understand what she is writing. I teach library instruction to 100 level classes (generally first-time freshmen) and will usually start out each session asking students what types of sources they used when they did research in high school. They always answer either “Wikipedia” or “Google”. While each of those tools have a place in the world, they generally don’t have a place in academic research, with the exception of Google Scholar. Our library spends so much money every year subscribing to academic databases where students can find reliable, appropriate information, it makes me crazy when I help a graduating senior at the reference desk, and they tell me either 1) they have never been to the library before or 2) they have never used one of our databases before. How the heck did they make it through all of those classes?! My guess is they have turned in passable papers with help from Google and Wikipedia, and that whole mess should be saved for another discussion. Anyway, Ms. Scribner makes an excellent point. Contrary to popular belief, and to uninformed comments made to me by certain members of my family while earning my master’s degree, libraries and librarians are not becoming obsolete. In fact, with the insane amounts of information that is available at everyone’s fingertips, librarians are more necessary than ever. This tech savvy generation who can allegedly find everything on the Internet doesn’t know what to do with the information once they find it. And, Ms. Scribner is absolutely right that if we don’t teach them how to evaluate information now, we will suffer for it greatly in the years to come.

Comments on: Librarians Still Relevant to the Google Generation

By: Joy L.