John Farrier's Comments

Actually, I'll argue on behalf of the "no internet" rule, even though it can be presented badly.

This is one of the great challenges of information literacy/library instruction today: a generation ago, young people (teens, 20-somethings) didn't know how to find information and knew that they didn't know how to find information. The more common experience today is that young people don't know how to find information but are convinced that they do.

Like Will Rogers said, "It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so." It is common for librarians to encounter the belief that all information is not only online, but on the open web. A Google search leads to all information. If information can't be found through a Google search, it doesn't exist. This is terribly, terribly wrong. And it's much easier to teach people who know that they don't know than it is to teach people who know what ain't so.

Telling young people (high school and college students) that they aren't allowed to use the open web forces them to learn how to use library subscription databases and other library resources. In my experience, young students are disinclined to learn unless it's a class requirement.

More advanced information literacy instruction can and should incorporate effective ways of using the open web and non-library information resources. But that should come after they've learned how to use the library.
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Ah, yes: the professor who says that you're not allowed to use the internet--even subscription library databases. Usually the student has misunderstood the professor, but sometimes the professor has actually expressed print only. That can be a troublesome situation.
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Profile for John Farrier

  • Member Since 2012/08/04


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