Monday, March 10, 2008

Reading Response 3: The Infodiet: How Libraries Can Offer an Appetizing Alternative to Google

Steven Bell’s article published in the Chronicle of Higher Education was a spot-on article that clearly stated how Google is competing against academic libraries for university students’ use in research. Bell stated most of the reasons why students are more inclined to using Google than complicated databases and on-site research in libraries. Academic libraries pay a lot of money for subscription to these databases, but students rarely take advantage. Bell made the point that Google does not always provide accurate information on the questioned topic; Google was designed to provide the most hits on the search topic, but it not always trustworthy to use when writing research based papers. Databases are not as user-friendly as Google and it can be intimidating for university students especially when a lot of the time they are not shown how to use them. Bell believes faculty members should play a part in getting students to use the valuable resource databases provide.

I believe like most of my classmates that Google is the way to find information; it produces lots of results and is extremely easy to use. Although, when trying to find information for school projects and papers Bell is right… Google’s information rarely is substantial enough to even think about using in that context. I think it is a good idea to make databases more like Google. Not a lot of students like to ask for help at the library; we are a technology-savvy generation and it makes us feel incompetent when we can’t find what we are looking for. Asking for help is admitting that we have given up. Bell made a point to get professors to require database articles in papers and I have already seen that at UNCW in some of my classes. It has been helpful when librarians have come into our classes and demonstrated how to use the library website and databases. It has not happened a lot, but it would definitely be a better resolution than making a library class required for graduation. I think UNCW is moving in the right direction to make more students information literate by providing classes, but simplification of databases could really help students prioritize research engines. (Word Count: 364)

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