The Librarian Comeback

In this day and age, students and professionals have come to depend greatly on the Web for research and information. In their quest for facts, people often pay a quick visit to their favorite search engines, whether it’s Google, AOL or Yahoo.

Unfortunately, the information they find isn’t always trustworthy and is oftentimes biased or even completely inaccurate. As an increasing number of people begin to realize that online information isn’t always the most reliable, the librarian is reemerging on the research scene.

Handling Overload
Not only can librarians help people find accurate, impartial information, but they also have the skills to help them narrow their search. For example, say you were looking for information about office team building. If you type “team building” into a search engine, you are likely to receive hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of results.

Many of the results would point you to the Web sites of businesses trying to sell you their services. This can be overwhelming for someone who’s just looking for a few team building exercises to try out at work. On the other hand, if you were to visit your local librarian, he or she could help you find the precise team building information you need.

Marilyn Parr, a public service and collections access officer at the Library of Congress, said “there are limitations with the search engines. You can type in 'Thomas Jefferson' in any search engine and you will get thousands of hits. How do you then sort through those to find the ones that are verifiable information, authentic and not someone's personal opinion?" It’s the librarians who can give people access to more trusted information.

Additionally, search engines don’t necessarily list results in order of accuracy or reliability. However, when people search online for information, they typically only read the first page of results, assuming that anything after that will not be helpful. People also neglect to consider the integrity of the online source, which can lead to erroneous or slanted information.

Search engines also only offer a portion of information that is actually available online. There is an abundance of helpful information hidden behind corporate firewalls and password protected sites, which has been dubbed the “deep Web.” In order to access these types of Web sites, people are often required to join the site or even pay to subscribe.

Oftentimes, librarians can access these Web sites and help you narrow your search to only the most dependable, fact-based information. That’s because these days, librarians do much more than simply shuffle through shelves to locate books. They can now help you focus your online search and grant you access to the most reliable information available on the Web.

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