Young Learners Need Librarians, Not Just Google


http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/03/25/young-learners-need-librarians-not-just-google/
 The following blog snippet resonated with me today. The title certainly caught my eye. "Young Learners Need Librarians, Not Just Google." Sounds like my mantra with my high school English students.The blog is from a fantastic daily blog newsletter called Resource Shelf.com specifically written for educators, journalists and information professionals. I found the site through the technorati.com blog search engine. Numerous up-to-the hour blogs caught my eye today on info related topics. (I told my husband that Starbucks is finally going free July 1st with its WiFi. Whoo-hoo!)
The March 25, 2010 blog discusses an article written by Dulcinea Media CEO Mark Moran in Forbes last year after a NY librarian was acknowledged by the NYTimes as being a " web curator and information literacy specialist." While this sounds like positive affirmation for information specialists, the article continues...
"Cut to the present, and librarian blogs tell a different story. Many absolutely clueless administrators still believe that a search engine is an adequate substitute for a trained research teacher. With the nation’s schools budget-strapped, librarians–and even libraries–are being cut from coast to coast.
To use the Internet as a library you need new research skills: the ability to pick out reliable sources from an overwhelming heap of misinformation, to find relevant material amid an infinite array of options…
[Snip] 
And as the founder of a company whose mission is to teach the effective use of the Internet, I have pored through dozens of studies, and recently oversaw one myself, that all came to the same conclusion: Students do not know how to find or evaluate the information they need on the Internet." ("Young Learners Need Librarians, Not Just Google," ResourceShelf.com, 3/25/10)
Librarians and teachers must arm ourselves with the tools necessary to equip our young learners how to find reliable information effectively. Oh, and we must be prepared to defend this role to those who see Google as the answer to budget woes.


(To read the original article, Access the Complete Forbes Column here.)