Reading Report 5

This latest reading was also about information literacy. It presented a number of differing opinions, with some scholars and professors believing the innovative techniques presented to students should be taught more, as part of a curriculum sometimes, while others feel it is a lost cause. A lot of academics feel students have actually regressed in terms of the information they are finding for research, even though the abundance of such information is far greater than in the past. Part of their problem lies in the easy accessibility of sites like Wikipedia and Google. While these sites allow students and professionals the ability to delve through information faster than ever before, the reliability and accuracy of some of these sites are inferior when compared to a school library or another database. In the past, and still today, the library’s materials are checked by academic professionals to ensure their accuracy, whereas information on a site such as Wikipedia is able to be altered by anyone.
I think it is important for schools to test students on their information literacy, as some schools in California are doing. While most students can find a slew of websites using Google, these sites are not always reliable. Only after being exposed to the numerous databases at UNCW did I realize how much better they were than Google at finding respected articles. The next time I do research of any kind, I am pretty sure I will use these databases at least as a reference. If all students knew about the opportunity to use the archives, the content of their papers would surely improve. I am not even sure I could pass the test some of these schools make students take, but the idea of testing is a good one to me. The ability to access tons of information is increasing by the minute, but if you are unable to use this ability, or are unfamiliar with it, then it might as well not even exist to you.

Reading Report 4

The reading report dealt with the current alternatives libraries possess to counter the Google mania taking place today. While few would argue the overall superiority of these databases in terms of search depth, the convenience of other sites, predominantly Google, is causing students to take the easy way out. The effect of this means often sloppy research for college term papers, and overall simplified information, compared to its alternatives. The author, Stephen Bell, partially believes libraries are not focusing enough effort into making these alternative search engines, such as EBSCOhost, more attractive to students. He also ascertains that the reason for this is the lack of understanding of these sites by the library faculty.

I thought this article was extremely relevant to our class. Often times I feel I do not learn anything useful that I can use in everyday life in my classes, but I know that the search engines which were introduced to me in this course and detailed again in this article will definitely come in handy when I have to do research on any given topic, which I am sure I will do countless times in my future. I thought Bell had a great point about making the other search engines and databases look more appealing or “smell like fast food” in attempts to lure the students in. This may sound like false advertising, but I think once most students see what these alternatives are really all about, they will begin to use them on a more regular basis. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, maybe apathy, these search engines will probably never be as successful in terms of hits as Google. Google is simply too convenient. For instance, just to find this article I had to do a lot of searching, or at least a lot more than I would have used had I used Google. In today’s world where everything is all about speed, I am afraid Google is simply too guilty a pleasure to turn down.