Essay on "Googlization and the Reference Desk Librarian"

Essay 13 pages (4159 words) Sources: 9 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Googlization and the Reference Desk Librarian

In this paper, the main focus will lie on the differences that the librarians and students have when they tend to retrieve or manage the information that they search through online databases. Furthermore, we will discuss the importance of the knowledge management and controlled vocabulary as the main distinction between those librarians who are successful at information retrieval and teaching it and those students that aren't. We will discuss this under the light of some of the large search engines or web portals that are available to the librarians and the students as part of their search archives like Google; highlighting some of the facts that should be known and/or taught about these web portals before they can be used to gather accurate information.

Introduction

There are many kinds of information retrieval tools existing in the internet for Librarian and patron usage which allows access to thousands of documents in the internet. The internet is composed of numerous computer networks worldwide and has become a powerful tool for information storage, retrieval and dissemination. Locating specific information from such a huge network may require numerous search techniques, time and patience when searching for a subject in the web even if the information is just a click away. This process may involve visits to numerous websites and reading the available information.

This lengthy search process can be reduced to a less extensive time if the correct vocabulary is utilized for searching as there are hundreds of sites available in the net. Many adults, teenagers, children, students, etc., not being schooled in search techniques may find themselves in a quagmire receiving information both related and unrelated to their topic of interest. One of the ways to do this effectively is through the application of the process of knowledge management.

Knowledge management, as the name suggests, simply means to manage or tackle the information that one is exposed to when gathering data on a particular subject. In the modern and highly developed world today, knowledge management has become an even more important phenomenon for any and every organization to ensure the use of accurate and appropriate information. This is so because the accessibility to information outlets has increased tremendously as a simultaneous reaction to the technological advancements. They key in knowledge management is to be able to distinguish and separate all the relevant information for the completion of a task from the irrelevant information. Furthermore, if the process of knowledge management is to be successful within the libraries, for use of both the librarians and the students, then the environment should be such where all the data gathered is accessible and acceptable for everyone. Since most libraries are basically information sharing centre, this isn't hard to achieve. Besides that, the librarians can use the history of data stored on their systems to establish and distinguish between search patterns and the ways in which most students articulate their information demands (Schwarzwalder, 1999).

Body

For this paper, we used the help of various researches conducted in the past to compare and contrast the differences between the skilled/unskilled librarians and the high/low achievers amongst the students when analyzing their overall ability to understand, collect and manage the information they need with regards to a certain topic or task.

All of the comparisons were done based on four different aspects: first, the use of meaningful understanding of the task at hand; second, the use of gathering relevant and detailed data on the task based on the meaningful understanding of it; third, the ability to remember the primary and important facts gathered; and fourth, the overall method applied to collect the information.

All of the results showed that the skilled librarians and the high achieving students were much better equipped to handle all four aspects individually and collectively as opposed to the unskilled librarians and low achieving students. Furthermore, comparisons of librarians and students showed that the overall advantage of the accurate collection and retention of data was with the librarians because of the methodologies that they used top collect the information. The question then remains whether these librarians can efficiently and effectively teach these students the techniques that they use to gather information and allow them to exercise the same skills of knowledge management and controlled use of vocabulary and words within and outside the environment of the libraries (Gadzella and Baloglu, 2003).

There are many academic psychologists and practitioners who have focused on this difference of success between the librarians and the students when it comes to understanding, retracting, managing and using the data that they gather fore a topic. Some researches chose to focus on the behaviors, characteristics, mental abilities and overall skill sets of the two entities to analyze the foundation behind the differences. There is a generalized belief among the researchers that the differences between the success of librarians and students does lie in the overall approach to the retrieval of information and the foundation, mental and personal, behind that approach. Furthermore, many researchers believe that the ability to retain the facts is also highly dependent upon the value or worth associated with them search (Gadzella and Baloglu, 2003).

Information Search and Collection

The fact of the matter is this: the librarians understand the importance of the key words used before conducting a research on an online or offline database and hence filter and choose these key words carefully in order to not only save time but gather the information that will be of the highest use with regards to the topic being tackled. However, when students conduct online or offline searches on a smaller scale, their lack of distinction between important and irrelevant key words might not be as consuming as when they are searching or gathering information from a large database. This is so because the smaller database has a lesser amount of information stored and with a little time invested, the students might eventually stumble upon what they really want but in a larger setup, one irrelevant keyword can divert the search into a database of over 100 million irrelevant articles and pages that will be of no use to the student and will only end up confusing and intimidating him/her. This is one of the main reasons why the librarians, compared to the students, are much better at not only gathering relevant information but also managing it so that the irrelevant facts are never really bothered with on a regular basis (Valenza, 1997).

Joyce Valenza in one of her researches on the importance of correct online searching say that the ability to accurately maneuver what one wants on the internet is and "art." She says that searching online is basically "a dance between targeting your search precisely enough, but not too narrowly," so as to not only gather relevant information on the topic but also gather a detailed perspective on the spectrum of what the topic covers and encompasses (Valenza, 1997).

She explains that the most popular use of conducting researches nowadays is through the use of the online search engine or an online directory. The use of an online directory is that it catalogs all the relevant studies that have already been done on the topic in the form of reference list that the individual can use to manage the kind of knowledge that he wants to gain by merely reading the headings of the studies or their abstracts available. The advantage of using online directories is that they give a filtered, concise yet detailed approach on the topic while simultaneously allowing you to redirect you search towards other similar topics that might or might not be relevant to the overall approach you had in mind. The biggest and perhaps the most significant factor of gathering information through online directories is that one only needs the individual to have the basic information and key words to conduct a through research without drowning into the pool pf what controlled vocabulary or words they must use to accurately maneuver their search towards their topic. This is the hurdle that most individuals have to cross when tackling the collection and management of information through the use of online search engines (Valenza, 1997). This is one of the main reasons why most librarians encourage students to first tackle their searches on the online directories and get an idea on the different ways that words and phrases can be used for a certain topic before tackling the information accessible on the online search engines.

Search engines, as aforementioned, require a heightened skill set of vocabulary in order to really filter out the main key words that will help in gathering and managing the most accurate information on a topic. Search engines basically utilize the brain of the computer and the vocabulary stored in its database to conduct the overall search based on each and every character or word typed. The usual pattern that search engines follow is to display the websites or pages that had the highest level… READ MORE

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