The question is if I had my own library and could apply funding to new materials for reference, either electronic online materials or book materials for my library, which would I choose? I would have to say that I am torn on this question. I want to stay current technologically and provide for the patrons, most of whom might be online users from home, as I am finding out, more people like to use the library online. Then again, I want my main mission as a librarian to be to get people into the library to use the reference section. I envision my library being small and needing the funds for my in-library resources. Do I stay true to myself and keep the books in-house or do I accommodate the technology users today and put the money into online references? I am going to choose books for the library. I think that if I could somehow show patrons that they can come into the library for all their reference needs than I can make the purchase beneficial to my library.
I do not think that print resources are becoming obsolete entirely. From my point of view and personal experiences, I use print more than online resources. I may be in the minority, but I know that there are more of us out there. We may not know just how to use or find the resources. I value a book in hand more than an online source, even though it may be less convenient to visit the library. I have always trusted a print source more for some reason. I am not sure why, but seeing words in print that I can verify seems much more reliable to me, especially when I might be passing on my information to others as fact, like in a research paper. Not to say that there aren’t some great online sources trusted by the library, but they do not seem to be as frequently used or as easy to find. When you search a term online the most popped up response is Wikipedia or Yahoo answers. How does someone know they might need to keep digging and find a more reliable source? With hundreds of hits per search, it can seem like information site overload. Navigating the sites can be frustrating.
As a side note to this, I had an assignment this week in another library class. We were comparing search engines and trusted websites. I mention this because I had a very strong reaction to our findings and thought I would vent. (and it applies to my point in this blog) One exercise was to view a site that is called martinlutherking.org. From the name you would think it was about the man himself and possibly his teachings, speeches, information about him, etc. Once on the site you really do not notice much out of the ordinary(without closely reading it), it has his picture and topics. We were told to verify the sponsor of the site. Clicking on the “host” takes you to the main page of a white supremacist group and their followers. I will not go into my whole commentary on this topic, other than to say I was absolutely horrified. I believe in freedom of speech absolutely, but cannot believe that a group could take over the name of someone who stands for something so profound and use it as their website to spew the opposite of what Martin Luther King Jr. stood for. Making a complete mockery of this man on this site. I cannot even imagine what people would think if they came across this site for information on this man and this is what they got. Not just an opposing viewpoint, but pure hatred, bias, bigotry and everything this man did not stand for or believe in. This is an example of someone listing a site to get you to them with the complete opposite of the information you were looking for. My eyes were opened and I trust websites a little less than I did before. You have to verify not only the information but also the source.
I also did not want to chose print over digital because that would be another reason not to go to the library, but at the same time if I had to think about finding an answer using print, I would be stumped. I am not sure where I would start. The problem with print is retrieving the information. It seems one would have to be knowledgeable as to what an almanac is or what a directory is, etc. Where as with digital, you just type in what you want in a search engine and the answer seems to magically appear.
ReplyDeleteI was also surprised by the MLK web site also. I had someone use my name to sign up for an e-amil account-so it is scary what is posted as truth on the Internet.
I think a lot of us who chose to study library sciences initially took an interest because we love books! Yet we are learning in a lot of our classes that it is not all about technology! And in reading the different blogs I am noticing how much some of us are still trying to cling to the use of books. I am definitely included in that group. In response to your blog there is nothing that I would love better then to have a small library filled with books. And for me to be given 5000 dollars to go buy more books! BUt sadly that doesn't seem to be the way it is going...
ReplyDeleteI also saw the Martin Luther King site and the first thing that I thought was "Gosh, imagine if my 10 year old son was doing a report on Martin Luther King and he just typed martinlutherking.org into the search box and ended up on that page. And it seemed to me that the site was directed towards school age children since it had fliers to print out saying to be passed out at school. Scary...
Awesome! Gettting people to come into the library is very important but also making the information available online is also important too. But overall you want everyone to know that the information they need is at the local library! I think online information through the library should be limited (not too much though) and we should being able to use the printed resources.
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