Reading and Research

eCampus News has an article exploring the Atlantic Monthly article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” by Nicholas Carr. If we keep our assignments the same: pick a topic, research it, write up your findings, submit the paper, then we shouldn’t expect research methods to change much. Maybe the reality is that Google is revealing how lazy we are about seeking out good information. The process hasn’t changed, it’s just more quantifiable.

“Rethinking Research in the Google Era,” by Meris Stansbury takes on the issue and what it means for education. It seems that the range of professionals she spoke with shared my take on the topic, having vastly more information (high and low quality) at our finger tips gives us the potential to be better informed and more thoughtful. We just have to figure out good ways of making the most of that potential. This is like saying that cars made us lazy. Doesn’t the ability to get where we are going faster have value?

Libraries struggle tremendously with the Long Tail. They often have deep rich collections that most patrons barely skim through. We have to figure out how to harness the power of those few who do go deep to bring more of us into their niches.