I recently came across the work of a fellow librarian – Dr. Mark Herring at Winthrop University – who wrote an article, “Ten Reasons why the Internet is No Substitute for a Library” (click to read).  Dr. Herring has also written the book Fool’s Gold, which expounds the same topic at greater length (book is on order – feel free to reserve it if you want to read it when it arrives).  Now I realize you’d expect those of us who earn our livings running a library to be book advocates – but Herring points out (in the book in particular) some compelling reasons why dependence on online information can be a perilous choice.  I’ve pointed out in orientation sessions and our writing workshop how Google’s so-called relevance ranking is a lot less about relevance than it is about paid-rankings.  But Herring develops things in much greater depth – and is engaging to read as well, even if you disagree with him at points.

At the very least, try to read the article.  Then perhaps you’ll be stirred to read the book too.  Or we can have coffee and you can listen to me rant from my soapbox…

10/15…Here is a follow-on related link to the one above: The Death of the Book?