Reading 3

“The Infodiet: How Libraries Can Offer An Appetizing Alternative to Google.”
Information literacy seems to be a hot topic for support for libraries. However, students prefer the satisfaction of instant results and the use of online search engines. The library once was the only way student were capable of retrieving information, but has long passed that title. The internet posses the main threat to the library with more convenient and self-satisfying search engines. However, James Morris the dean at Carnegie Mellon University believes that this quick self-satisfying search for information is “infobesity” and is low quality information. In fact Morris goes as far as to compare this information gathered through Google as a “junk diet” of information. The potential cure for retrieving low quality research paper is to create a library search database that is more similar to Google. This may attract students to once again use scholarly work for their research papers. Some librarians still feel that research should be pain taking and a process, but let’s be honest here- students are multitasking more than ever and need a quick way to retrieve information rich resources. It a library database could be developed that did a very quick search and had online articles which could be saved or printed, the libraries resources could be utilized more than they currently are. The belief is that professors are going to have to force students to use these resources for their research papers. However, I do not believe that the professors should force students to use these resources; that is the worst way to encourage students to be information literate. The upgrade of catalogue search engine alone should encourage students to use more information rich resources.