In the Library

          

The most dramatic change in libraries over the last 30 years is the shift from paper to electronic formats. While students are finding that quick access to information is, overall, a good development, this situation has reversed what has long been seen as the basic role of librarians. Where in the past we had to deal with a lack of access to information, the challenge now is access to too much information, much of it of a dubious quality. For example, after the crash of an airliner at San Francisco airport, a local television station pulled a list from the internet of the supposed Korean pilots. After the TV station had created a graphic and a news announcer began reading the names, only then did they finally begin to suspect that they were being pranked. The names “Captain Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk, and Bang Ding Ow” were not the real names of the pilots on the airliner.* The news reporters had, in the rush to find information, picked up and presented—on air—false data from the posting of an internet prankster.

This situation is far more difficult to deal with than our old problem: how to manage affordable access to the information needs of our educational programs. Now we have plenty of information, perhaps even too much information in some subject areas. And we have to figure out what is reliable and teach students how to avoid the joke sites, the product sales pitch sites, the self-serving propaganda, and the deliberate distortion of facts to suit a political agenda. It is a battle for truth. Some of these battles are fought on the pages of Wikipedia, where information is sometimes slanted and distorted. For example, when Sarah Palin made comments about Paul Revere’s Ride that were clearly wrong, some of her followers went to the Wikipedia page and altered the page so that her statements seemed less problematic. This rewriting of history brings to mind George Orwell’s 1984, where history was constantly being edited to suit the current political situation. Students need to learn to treat the internet with a very large dollop of skepticism.

For the typical college student, who has little life experience and a perhaps only a mediocre education in the K-12 system, separating the wheat from the chaff can be a daunting challenge. Based on the idea that “it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish” it is clear that a very important goal for the university is educating students on how to find reliable information and use it correctly. In terms of finding good information, the library has long managed the gathering, sorting, and accessing functions behind the scenes, through various Technical Services.

Unfortunately, the internet has punched a large hole in the dike that libraries once used to keep out the trash-filled waters. The floodgates are open, and a lot of bad information and deliberate misinformation is flowing in, largely because of wide-open internet access. Clearly outreach and reference services need to be overhauled to help stem the tide before the malaria sets in. Or at least we need to help manage the tide through a webpage and ILS system with lots of channels, locks, damns, pipes, and flood gates. Like the city of New Orleans, we are surrounded by waters that threaten to overwhelm the practice of information seeking. Bad information is often worse than no information.

We need a renewed commitment to real critical thinking, without giving in to the popular gimmicks of contemporary CritThink being pushed by some educators.** We need to move toward becoming a true Learning Commons. Probably the most effective use of our resources is to create a webpage that effectively leads students toward reliable information (books and journals) and diverts them away from junk information (loosely-defined Google searches).

*FYI, I am not related to Mr. Ho Lee Fuk.

** It was suggested, quite seriously, that a person should wander around the library and pass out free skittles to any student who was found studying. This would be along the same lines as the idea of using free pizza to lure students into the library. Unfortunately, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him think. Student are either motived or not, and free skittles won’t change that fact.