Category Archives: information literacy

Information seeking: the Internet vs bookstores vs the library

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Finding information isn’t difficult. We can talk to friends, watch TV, listen to the radio, read the newspaper, etc. Not to disparage this easy information (or even the recreational aspects), but it is ephemeral. At some point, everyone needs to find information (or recreation) that’s nailed down, so to speak, in a form that can be consulted. Here’s one librarian’s view of when to look for more or less permanently preserved on the Internet, the bookstore (or for that matter, a record store, etc.), or the library. I’m not making any attempt to be comprehensive here. Let me know if you think I’ve left out something important. I can always edit! Use the Internet if You need to do quick fact checking. You need to keep up with current events or, especially, breaking news You need to look for specific information on a company’s (city’s, state’s, university’s, hospital’s, etc.) web site. You have a fairly clear idea of what you want to know and how to find it. You can find the full text of a book, article, or other authoritative source for free online. You want to download an eBook to your Kindle or similar device. You want to … Continue reading →

Search engine optimization: how library and Internet differ

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Updated August 15, 2020 Using a search engine and a library catalog are very different experiences. The Internet makes finding information easier than ever. Finding useful, accurate, and reliable information remains as difficult as ever. Something called search engine optimization both helps and hinders. Library collections must be highly selective. On the other hand, anyone can post something on the Internet. So library catalogs and databases necessarily work differently from search engines.

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Search engines, online library catalogs: how they work

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Most people begin to search for information using Google or other search engines. They turn to library catalogs later, if at all. When they get to the catalog, they have trouble using it if they expect it to work anything like Google. Some library and information technology professionals have drawn entirely wrong conclusions from that fact. One faction says it demonstrates that online library catalogs are obsolete, that the software system that runs them is old fashioned and difficult to program in, and therefore that we need to abandon the catalog. Another declares that people would use the catalog more if the user interface were more familiar, and that catalogs ought to have the look and feel of Google. Meanwhile, library patrons have needed help learning to use the catalog since long before the days of online catalogs–even before the invention of the card catalog. Google seems much easier and more intuitive only because it is a completely different way to search for information. Google is a search engine. The library catalog is a database. Actually, librarians spend as much time explaining how a search engine works as they do explaining the catalog. Search engines When a search engine user … Continue reading →

Information literacy and the art of detecting crap

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Information literacy is the ability to tell good information from bad information, or crap. According to Sturgeon’s Law 90% of everything is crap. (Well, I just looked it up. Sturgeon actually said “crud,” but it’s usually quoted as “crap.”) On the Internet, no editor or gatekeeper has filtered out the 90%, so it is not only publicly visible, but there is so much more of it than ever before.

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How not to do research

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Here are some posts from a thread on an email list I follow. I am deleting anything that could identify the particular libraries where the posters work, although they are clearly all academic libraries. 1. A scenario reported by one of my colleagues:  student sitting at a computer not 5 feet from the reference desk where said colleague is stationed. He’s been there for quite a while.  As his friends walk by, he asks them how to find something, how to do something.  Colleague asks repeatedly if he needs any help and is rejected every time.  Then he starts phoning friends IN THE LIBRARY to come over and help him.  One of these friends suggests he search the ever-popular JSTOR.  Colleague reminds him that JSTOR is an archive and there are no current articles contained therein.  The student says, that’s ok, I’m researching something that happened in the ’70’s.  [Bang forehead on desk here.] 2. I was helping somebody on IM who noted he knew nothing about libraries and he needed articles for his topic.  After quite a few exchanges with some ground gained, I suggested that if he continued to have problems, he was welcome to telephone me as … Continue reading →