Topic: Relevance of Libraries in the Age of Google Searches

Question: What can students learn about research sources that they can’t gain from Google?

Answer: Plenty. Using Google, students have lost the ability to search books, periodicals and scholarly databases. They also fail to check the quality of resources on Google.

But the nature of exposure to the library must change: “The typical model for library orientation has been for composition students to sit in the library while the research librarian lectures. Then they leave the library seldom to use it again.”

Comment: In the age of Google, students need to learn how to use the traditional resources of books, periodicals and scholarly databases for information. RayS.

Title: “The Library’s New Relevance: Fostering the First-year Student’s Acquisition, Evaluation, and Integration of Print and Electronic Materials.” G Hlavaty and M Townsend. Teaching English in the Two-Year College (December 2010), 144-160.