Blogging Librarian

Check out this blog post by Dare Obasanjo.

You must be wondering why am I highlighting an Internet article here. Well, it’s because Dare has named ‘Libraries’ as one of the 5 industries that would be killed by the Internet.

Personally, I feel that libraries will be here to stay for the foreseeable future. Most people still prefer to go borrow a book to read rather than reading it on the computer or listening to it on a MP3 player.

In addition, Dare forgot about the most critical cog in a library system wheel — the librarian. It’s the librarian that would make libraries relevant in this new information age. And it’s how the librarian moves and interacts with technology that would determine whether libraries would still be around in future.

He also mentioned that he did most of his research online when he was in university. But that’s because he knew how to search and look for the relevant information.

Surprisingly, a large proportion of people still do not know how to do conduct proper web searches to help them sieve through the tons of information available online. Both students and adults still have difficulties in determining the trustworthiness of the information they find on the Web. I personally have to walk some of the patrons in our public libraries through step-by-step how to do a search on Google and what keywords to use and how to determine which links are relevant to their research.

The other point I’ll like to make is that quite a lot of information, though digital, is still not available on the World Wide Web. These information are on digital databases (such as Factiva, Lexis-Nexus, Proquest, Ebscohost, Bloomberg, etc.) that are not available to the general public because of financial costs and copyright issues. They would then have to rely on their public and/or academic libraries to access these databases to get to the information they want. Thus, most libraries around the world also have a digital component in the services they provide. It’s also another way for libraries to stay relevant.

So, what do you think? Will libraries go the way of the dodo bird? Do send in your comments.

Technorati Tags: libraries, internet