I went to the professor because they are the specialist in the subject area; I don’t see librarians as specialists. They just know about general information. They are knowledgeable about search engines.
It’s an interesting perspective considering my own experiences this quarter. I was bemoaning earlier that I’m not a subject specialist and I can’t rattle off books or titles students should use off the top of my head. This quarter I actually did have an opportunity to help someone with a subject I was extremely familiar with and it was really nice to be able to say, you should look at this essay by this author, and make certain you consider this. In this particular case, this student had discovered so much information that they were looking for ways to narrow it down to a manageable amount for a quarter long research paper. They easily had found enough to write a dissertation!
Now, the thing this student probably isn’t considering is that you don’t have to know a lot about a subject to be able to search it – case in point, I’ve been able to track down articles on chemical compounds I know nothing about and had to have the patron spell for me – but I can certainly see why the first place a student might go would be the professor. If I were in a larger library, I’d be able to be more specialized, look specifically at humanities, or science, or government documents, but when it’s just me in the Reference Room, I have to cover topics that I don’t know anything about. At times that’s extremely frustrating for me (because I don’t know where to begin looking) and I’m certain that’s true of the students as well.
Survey conclusions from this particular study are encouraging I think.
“Those interviewed report that they work systematically through the research and writing process… depend upon library books, journals, and databases for their academic research… understand that this search (Internet) is not sufficient for their assignments… often look for recommendations from their professors and teaching assistants”
It seems some of the students had utilized library services and spoke with librarians, although some students (and I think this is often true of a larger population) only equate librarians with hard-copy materials and stack locations. Having just come off of the Internet Librarian conference, I find this absolutely ridiculous!
This is, perhaps, one of the best arguments for being in places students don’t expect and helping them find information they don’t expect. I utilize Wikipedia, Google, YouTube, and so forth just as much as the next person – they aren’t evil and certainly they are a part of the information world. It seems to me one of the challenges of libraries in the future will be to dispel this myth that we are only about the physical materials. If people can connect us synonymously to “information” in their minds – as synonymous as Google is to information – there is no doubt that we will continue to remain relevant. Librarians seek information, and the format of that information may change (floppies to CDs to flash drives anyone?), but the information and our ability to find that information does not.
