Forget Google, Sometimes The Old Search Methods Are The Best

But please, keep your voices down!

Published on September 29, 2006 By Zoomba In WinCustomize News

Internet search engines such as Google have been all the craze the past few years, with students flocking to them as an easy source of research material for school assignments. With the right search terms, you can find anything! Well, maybe not. Most of us don't know how to form the most effective search terms or phrases for search engines. We try and treat it as regular language and ask Google things like "When did the Berlin Wall fall?" and for major events or historical figures, that usually works. But as you dig further down into a subject and start looking for minute details (i.e. early Roman Catholic Church history) of historical events, or you're trying to find more detailed information on a science topic, being able to ask general questions into a search field just won't cut it.

So who do you turn to?

A librarian, of course!

Read more at CNet News on why that elderly lady who was always shushing you in high school could be your greatest tool in finding information on the Information Superhighway.

Comments

whiterabbit007

on Sep 29, 2006

Last paragraph of the article:

"For some people, if the answer isn't in the first few results it might as well not be there," said Gary Price, founder and editor of the ResourceShelf blog and director of online resources at Ask.com. "No matter how smart and helpful search engines get, they're never going to replace librarians."

So basically the conclusion is that most people are - laaazy! I'm sorry, but for people who can't take the time to sift through the search results to find the links that they need, a librarian isn't going to help, and you know why, because they're too lazy to go to the library. Personally, I don't have anything against librarians but first of all, if you know how to use the internet (or more accurately the various tools provided on the internet), you can find any kind of information and verify it's viability. Second, the next generation of librarians is going to come from those people who can't be bothered to click on anything but the first search result. So next time your kid goes to the library and asks the librarian something, you know what they're going to do - yep, they're going to google it.

So, in conclusion, I'm not necessarily agree or disagree with the article, rather I'm saying that regardless of the resource available, whether it's google, librarians, or a chip in your brain, if people are lazy then it doesn't matter.

wyldstallyns2589

on Sep 29, 2006

i had a school project a few years ago on this dude, mansa musa. the guy practically doesn't exist. there were maybe 3 books that had about a paragraph about him, and a childrens book that mentioned his name once. the internet didn't help, all the information conflicted with itself, like birth year, differen't dates, and who his father was. i asked the librarians, 3 of them. they looked and looked, and found nothing (using google like i had already done). i failed the assignment because the teacher was an *** and gave me a person that no one knows anything about.

anyways, that story shows that the above poster is right, now, or in a few years from now, librarians wont be any more helpful than you googling what you want to know.

mrdickie

on Sep 30, 2006

Mansa Musa was the grand-nephew of the founder of the Mali's Empire, Sundiata Keita, and ruled over Mali while it was the source of almost half the world's gold. Musa was a devoted Muslim and Islamic scholarship flourished under his rule. With Musa as a benefactor, Sankore University in Timbuktu reached its height. Craftsmen and especially Islamic scholars came from all over the Muslim world to receive a free education at Sankore's guilds and madrasas.

When he passed through Cairo in July of 1324, he was accompanied by five hundred slaves, each reportedly carrying a six-pound staff of gold. He gave out so much gold that it took 12 years for the economy to recover, due to the rapid inflation that it initiated. According to Cairo born historian al-Maqurizi, "the members of his entourage proceeded to buy Turkish and Ethiopian slave girls, singing girls and garments, so that the rate of the gold dinar fell by six dirhams." The Arab historian al-Umari records that Musa was so generous that he ran out of money and had to take out a loan to be able to afford the journey home. Musa's hajj, and especially his gold, caught the attention of both the Islamic and Christian worlds.

He was succeeded in 1337 by his son Maghan and in 1341 by his brother Suleyman.[/size]

I know that was a bit off topic but wanted to show the previous postee that this was I found using google and pointed me towards Wikipedia. I'm guessing that Wiki wasn't around when this guy did this assignment or otherwise he might have passed it. I do agree with them though, that if you cant find it on google, you will be very hard to find it anywhere, librarian or no librarian

Bichur

on Sep 30, 2006

Clusty Search (less to sift through than google) on Mansa Musa

not even sure why a librarian would use google - their job is their library's inventory, not the world's.

wyldstallyns2589

on Sep 30, 2006

they used google and a bunch of other stuff, library inventory and so on.

also, thanks for that information, however, how am i supposed to write a 7 page paper with that? oh wait, you can't! i managed to though, and it was horrible, and i got a D on it. and see how it says he was succeeded in 1337, well i had a few sources (one being an encyclopedia) that said that was when he was born. not much is known about this guy and i shouldn't have been assigned him when everyone else got like socrates and other well known historical figures.

mikeburris

on Sep 30, 2006

I'm currently getting my Master's degree in Library Science - there's a lot of ways to find information that don't involve Google... and there's a lot of ways to find information that do use Google, but not in the ways you expect. Unfortunately, many librarians haven't had a formal training in Library Science, and of those that have, most don't specialize in reference services (which is what this article is talking about.)

There's enough information on the web to write a 7 page paper about Mansa Musa ... if you structure the paper correctly! Taking the information listed above, you could quote the seciton, explain the relative money structures to show why six dirhams was a lot, go into the political history of the area that Mana travelled through, talk about the educational institutions of the times to explain the relative stature of Sankore University, how Mali's Empire was founded ...

And about conflicting information: the paper is longer if you include it and discuss how the information conflicts and why it might not be reliable.

wyldstallyns2589

on Oct 01, 2006

yeah well, it wasn't supposed to be about money, or sankore university. i don't remember what the specifications were, but they involved neither. all im saying is that the librarians were of no use, finding only information that i had found on google.

joeKnowledge

on Oct 02, 2006

Google and Clusty search are my best friends.

Blueweb

on Oct 02, 2006

Or.. just scan all em books and post them online.
That way you save trees, time, money, avoid odd smells and don't forget gas.. and oil.
Im sure you guys can find more to add to the list.

Just my opinion.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!