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.
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