Reading Report #4

The Infodiet: How Libraries Can Offer an Appetizing Alternative to Google
10/22/09

This article tells more on the divide of research through good information and the use of easy information like that of google. The author uses the example of like everything in America being made in to the Supersize me lifestyle. College students want their research to be made easy and timeless. Google is the solution to this and has been for years. The problem that it creates is that college students are no longer using real research for their papers and instead using the easy information off of Google. Librarians say this is making young people lazier and that the eminence databases that they have are becoming useless. The author says that the solution to this problem is to make the databases more "Googlized". In other words, make the databases easier to use and not so complex just for an easy research paper. Databases like ProQuest have been making this drive in the right direction and are leading the way in making their information easier to access. The author finishes by saying that everyone is going to have to be involved in making the drive to continue to use research databases.
Most of the world is becoming more "Googlized". My generation has grown up with the easy of access to everything. We have been about to contact our friends instantly online or via text message so is it a wonder that we would want our information the same way. The world that we live in is a "Googlized" world. This doesn't make it right that we want everything to work like that but, at the same time it kind of is expected now. The more that these databases are made "Googlized" means the more that we will use them. I know that I hate to have to spend twenty minutes just trying to access the information so that I can read and evaluate it. The more information is easily accessed means the more that we will use it and make use of the money that the school is spending on these databases.

Reading report #3

The library has been a place of preserving history. It has saved the written history of people in books and their stories. It has also kept alive great works of famous people such as Da Vinci. The library has had many uses over the years and its uses continue to change. This article describes the direction that the library is heading and the history of how it got to be where it is today. The written word has been around for centuries but, the printed word was not mass produced until the 1500's. It was during this time that Johann Gutenburg invented the printing press and the amount of books during produces exploded. Great men like Andrew Carnegie also helped by donating money to help new libraries being built. Libraries are changing though and heading in new directions. The same as technology. The technology that we have now will not be current in ten years. There will be faster and more effect ways to access the web and to store information. It is thought that the library will soon become a place of housing culture more than housing information. It is also thought that search technology will continue to get more effecient and faster.
This article brings alot of interesting ideas to light. The fact that technology is forever changign is easy to see. Living in the information age I have been able to bare witness to most of this. It is during my lifetime that I have growen up with the internet. As I have gotten older and more advanced, so has it. Although I do not really agree that the library will ever be done with housing books. I feel that the written word is something that people long. I do not feel that people will ever be completely done with it or not have a longing for the written word. Therefore I feel that the library will never be a thing of the past and that it will always be a place for people to come and check out books. Technology is always changing though and I do agree that one day we will reach a point where smaller storage is not possible. It will be other advances for computers that will become the new thing then.