Reading Report #5

Title:  Information Navigation 101

 Author: Andrea L. Foster

             The article “Information Navigation 101” is about the current increase in the number of sources that can be used for finding information and how little students actually use them.  The author is from Cal State Fullerton and tells how they have classes at the California State Universities that help teach students how to find scholarly material that is legitimate.  This was the beginning of the information literacy movement that has now fled all over the country.  Foster defines this movement as “a growing librarian-led movement to make students more adept at locating and evaluating electronic data.”  The article continues on telling about the history of information literacy and what other universities are doing to help inform students of electronic resources.  

            I think this movement is a great idea that is very necessary for many reasons.  I know that I have made it almost all the way through my undergraduate degree and have never used online resources unless it was required.  I do understand that electronic data is very valuable and it is a great idea to inform students early in their college life about these great resources.  I think classes and tests of this nature should be part of a basic studies curriculum so students are forced to take them.  When you consider how much money libraries spend on these databases it only makes sense that the students should use them.  Throughout this class I have learned the importance of good research and the information literacy movement has convinced me that electronic data is very useful.

Reading Report #4

Title:  “The Infodiet, How Libraries Can Offer an Appetizing Alternative to Google”

 Author:  Steven J. Bell

             The article “The Infodiet, How Libraries Can Offer an Appetizing Alternative to Google” is about figuring out how to encourage students to use databases more than just Googling everything.  Bell claims students think they know how to do effective research but in reality have no idea.  Bell feels since students have been able to Google any research topic their research and end results have gone downhill.  Another professor created the term “infobesity” which describes the bad results you get whenever you Google a question; he believes the result is an “infodiet” This infodiet basically says that librarians and aggregators need to find a way to make their databases more attractive and easier to use.  Bell believes some databases are too confusing and hard to use so he thinks they need to make it more like Google.  Bell is a firm believer in if aggregators, professors and librarians work together then they can bring databases back to the top.

            I definitely agree with the article in the sense of making it more like Google.  Google is so great because you can type in anything you want in any way you want and you will still get decent results most of the time.  I don’t think Google gives bad results by any means though.  If a student knows what a legitimate website looks like then you can only get good results from Google.  After taking this class and learning how to use these databases I can definitely say I will use them more.  But for those that don’t know how I feel Google is good alternative.