Libraries & Librarians: What Have They Done for You Lately?

As a little girl, I was fascinated by the library and librarians. I thought what if I could live with all these books and consume all their knowledge. What if I were a librarian and could drown in books all day long.

Well, today, I am still trying to consume knowledge in a variety of ways, mostly through reading and seminar attendance. I do not have the luxury of visiting great libraries here in Turkey because there are few that the public can access. So, I try to share what I've learned through the years with others who need this information.

What I find sad is that our children, no matter where they live, may not even go to a library or know what a library has to offer. Many believe we have the internet and that is all we need. Of course, they would be wrong, and could understand this once inside of a library. You must be careful on the internet to know whether the sources are reliable or not.

So, be thankful if you live in a country where all cities are rich with libraries and easily assessible to everyone, because in the developing countries, you may find few, if any. Usually, if there are none in the community, schools may have at least a room set aside as a library but with limited resources.

A library fills its shelves with material of all sorts to include magazines, journals, newspapers and various media, along with resources which are categorized and archived waiting for your retrieval. What more, you have a librarian who can help you to quickly find the information you need for your articles or papers, and can unlock the mysteries of these sources and guide your way like no one else can.

Librarians are still a vast source of information today, even though, the internet has become king. Don't forget this valuable source which awaits you at every local library. Librarians want to help you access information you would never know about if you did not seek them out. Librarians also can be found as information brokers in your local community and will retrieve documents and material you never knew existed which will help your business grow.

In the meantime, whether you can access a library or not, here are several reliable resources which you may find valuable if you can only search the internet.

Librarians’ Internet Index: http://www.lii.org

Internet Public Library http://www.ipl.org

World Wide Web Virtual Library http://vlib.org

Comments

[erkut sahin]

You have mentioned a very important problem here in Turkey. Internet is a very important source interms of geathering information but it has got many disadvantages. What is gonna happen when the information reaches trillions. How we will find the relevant info that we look for. Thats why I like libraries because I like to touch infos and I want my brain to sperate the relevant info for me . Computer's brain works like 2 years old child brain but my brain is 36 years old thats why I am better than any computers. Good work. Thanks

[John Royce]

Well said, Bea. And you too, Erkut.

Sherman and Price, in their book (book!) "The Invisible Web" spell out succinctly the five myths of internet search:
> It’s all there, it’s up-to-date and it’s all good stuff
> It’s full-text and it’s free
> It can easily be found
> Anyone can use a search engine
> Everyone’s an expert

It just ain't so!

Or, to put it another way: a friend recently asked me, rather scathingly, "What can you teach me about the internet?"
What I said was, "I don't know what you don't know."
What I should have added (but did not think of until later) was, "And do you know what you don't know?"

Librarians work with information. They are that much closer to knowing what they don't know - and how to find it out.

Thanks, Bea.

John Royce (Librarian)