Admit it...it is easier to Google

"Except for the most arcane materials and users, that which is not available online will simply not be read" (Courant, 2006).


So as I strive towards a degree in library science, you would think I would be frequenting an academic library quite often, right? Not so much. The online library, yes. The actual physical library, no. As the quote above says, when I am researching, and the articles I want are not online, I end up giving up on them and looking for something else that is. While researching (online), I found an article about Google and the internet and whether or not they are destroying academic libraries. The article said, "Meanwhile, on the demand side, everyone wants and expects to do almost everything over the Internet, at least in the initial stages of search. Even our most curmudgeonly faculty, the ones who love breathing the dust of musty tomes, start their day from home looking at the online catalog and browsing collections that they can get to online (Courant, 2006). It is true, it just seems easier to do things online. For example, right now I can research my upcoming ethics paper while sitting at home in my pajamas. That is definitely an upside. The downside? All of the articles that I see that look like they would be perfect for my papers, that I cannot get on the internet. So what do universities do about this? How do they make sure that their students are getting the best information available? Do they force students to come to the library? Or do they change with the times? In the article, the author was from the University of Michigan and what they have decided to do is digitize their entire print collection. This is a huge undertaking, and in 2006 they said they still had about 6 more years to finish it. Despite the time factor being an issue, the article makes a good point. It says, "Our students, and to an increasing extent the rest of us, only look online. We had better make sure that the good stuff is there, or all we will see is inferior material. The risks to the quality of scholarship itself, and to its practical uses, are profound (Courant, 2006). The author feels that if universities want students to produce high quality work with high quality research, they are going to have to provide the research to them in the format that they use. If not, most students will not give in and go to the library. Instead, they will produce work with research they find online, regardless if it is the best information or not. I can see both sides to this, it is definitely an interesting dilemma that academic libraries have to face. What do you think?

Courant, P. (2006, August). Scholarship and Academic Libraries (and their kin) in the World of Google. First Monday, 11 (8). Retrieved March 8, 2008, from http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_8/courant/index.html