Reading #4

Mallory Phillips

October 20, 2009

Reading #4

The Infodiet: How Libraries Can Offer an Appetizing Alternative to Google

By: Steven Bell

This article mainly focuses on the competition between Google and libraries. Librarians have a hard time getting students to use the databases that the library provides for them. Bell says that the library has lost its position as the campus information gateway, but can return. The reason that students normally choose Google over libraries is that they want fast, easy accessible, full-text documents. However, they do not realize that some things on the Internet are not very accurate. Even if using the library is slower and more inconvenient, at least you are getting reliable information. James Morris coined the term “infobesity,” describing Google as a junk-information diet, consisting of large amounts of bad quality material that is hard to digest. He says that the cure for this is databases known as aggregators, which return better search results. Libraries are contemplating on how to become more like Google; the challenge is getting students to convert from low quality Websites to more accurate information.

Personally, I use Google on a regular basis. I believe that it is much easier than these complicated search engines. There are ways to get reliable information from Google, you just have to make you search pretty specific. While Google is not as reliable as library databases, at least it is easier to use, and more convenient. I feel that someone needs to develop search systems that are easy to use, but also include the sophistication of library catalogs. To resolve this issue, we need to improve students’ information literacy.

Reading 3

**Sorry, I posted the wrong thing yesterday!

Mallory Phillips
October 9, 2009
Reading #3
The Future of Libraries
http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2006/11/the-future-of-libraries/

Libraries played a huge role in helping preserve Leonardo da Vinci’s collections of art. Without libraries, this collection would have been ruined. The role of libraries in the past was pretty much just to house books, manuscripts, art and important documents. These books and other things used to be scarce and hard to find, but now they are readily available. This article puts together ten trends that are affecting libraries generations to come. The first trend takes a look at the continually changing communication systems. This article states that there is no way to know the ultimate form of communication, but they bet that it will not be reading and writing books. The second trend predicts that all technology that we have today will end and be replaces by something else. Trend three talks about reaching the ultimate storage particle. The fourth trend predicts that search engines will become much more difficult. They say that searches will become much more specific, and therefore can cause complications. Trend five talks about time changing the lifestyle of people who use libraries, and basically we have more needs. The sixth trend predicts that overtime we will be transitioning to a verbal society and that there will be no more keyboards. Trend number seven states that the demand for global information is growing exponentially and that we need to learn and understand other cultures to prepare ourselves for these global societies. The eighth trend says that a stage is being set for future global systems. Trend nine believes that we are changing from a product-based economy to an experienced based economy. Last but not least, the tenth trend predicts that libraries will change from a center of information to a center of culture.
I can see some of these trends actually happening in the future. The main trends that I can fully agree with are one, two, and six. Communication is continually changing and getting more and more advanced. I do not think that books will ever be completely removed, but I feel that they will not be as popular with more advanced things being invented. Some technology, such as cell phones, will never be extinct. Cell phone appearance and what they can do are constantly changing, but no matter how much they change, they still do pretty much the same things. I agree with the sixth trend because when I was in high school, in my digital communications class, we “talked” into our computers, not typed. Everything that we spoke was “keyed” into the computer.

New Report

Mallory Phillips

October 8, 2009

New Report

Washington: Sorry, Library Is Closed

The New York Times Associated Press

September 3, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/us/03brfs-SORRYLIBRARY_BRF.html

In Seattle, Washington, the downtown central library and twenty-six branches decided to shut down their entire systems for a whole week to help save money. And I mean everything was shut down, from the branches, book drops, and web sites. The city had been told to reduce spending to make up for a $43 million gap in the 2009 budget. The library is trying to cut 2% of that, and with closing the library for a week, it is estimated that about $655,000 will be saved. As a result, about 700 library employees had to go a week without pay. During this week of closing, no books were due, and there were no fines. This is nothing new to Seattle; there are been closedowns for two weeks in 2002 and 2003 in effort to save money.

I think it is sad that the city was in so much financial trouble that they had to shut the library down for a week. If you think about it, that is a pretty long time. Some people rely heavily on libraries, and the city of Seattle let these people down during this week. Shutting the library down had good intentions to help the city save money, but think about all the people that were affected. The librarians and staff all went a week with pay. They may not seem that long to some people, but some people need that money. I think that they could have came up with some better ideas to save money than closing down this significant public place for a week.