Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Valuable Information

A friend of mine wanted a recipe for homemade wax for waxing herself. She went on to Google and typed homemade waxing. Of the 500,000 or so results, she clicked on the first one, got her recipe, printed it off and was content.

Google makes searches look easy. But are the searches good? This was the question on my mind. And what about my friend who performed the search? Did she not want to see what else is out there, who put this recipe up, if this recipe is safe, etc?

It reminded me that this is how most patrons are searching and finding and assuming they have got the best information. They might be educated but are unaware of such a thing as information literacy.

With the ubiquitous www, there is a lot of information out there, some of it effectively managed through proper channels, but the rest of it is just data. Data doesn’t provide accurate information. And now I am worried for all those patrons who don’t come to us, who don’t use the library, who haven’t been to school or haven’t learnt information literacy. They are missing out on valuable information that could be out there!

6 comments:

ush said...

oh, great.. yes, why should info on web be right.!
hope we get right info.. hopefully
no one gives wrong info..

good luck
ust

Anonymous said...

You'd be surprised to learn that many give the wrong information and/or biased information.

MK

ush said...

I suppose one has to be just careful,and take things with a pinch of salt!
read everything and make u'r own decision..good/bad..
Do u suggest any other way?
take care
thx
ust

Anonymous said...

Taking it with a pinch of salt is right! That is where information literacy comes in - know what you want, learning how to go about finding it, looking for it and being critical of what you find.

ush said...

thx

Amos said...

This is very much true.. need more research to get what you need.....AM