I should plainly state that I, unabashedly, love Google. I think the services the company offers are great. I like that most things are free, easy to use, and may be personalized (to an extent) for every individual. But Google will only get you so far.
As the video shows, Google is a one way street. You put in a query and it spits something out at you - right or wrong. Google searches for the masses. Google search does not make it easy to hold a conversation to find that perfect bit of information you need. Librarians, on the other hand, listen and ask you questions to elicit the exact information need you may have. Information queries are far more complex than most people realize. What librarians specialize in is the Reference Interview. Google cannot drill down to that perfect website as easily as a trained librarian can.
For example, say you saw the movie Gladiator
. Russell Crowe made you want to know more about acutal Roman gladiators. You could Google "gladiator" but that will spit out information on the film. At this point you might try searching "roman gladiators." You get a Wikipedia entry and a bajillon websites of all kinds on roman gladiators. If you're looking for a cursory overview, you're set, but what if you had something else in mind. This is where a librarian comes in. They are trained to derive your exact information need by asking you questions to determine what exactly it is your looking for. In this case, you may have been searching for a book (or website) about the importance of gladiators to roman politicians and emperors
.Librarians, in this case, are necessary because they cause you, the information seeker, to breakdown your general information need to get to the heart of your query. Google can't do that. Google can give you a lot of good stuff, but a librarian can give you exactly what you need.
Comments