Even with Internet and new technologies, librarians remain critical

Editor:

I’ve heard some disparaging remarks over the years about how we no longer need libraries and librarians – most often from people who should know better, and because they think the existence of the Internet has superseded the need for libraries.

Statistics alone show the need for libraries – library use is increasing, and has been so for a long time. One of the reasons for that increase is the presence of librarians in libraries of all types. Librarians serve as gatekeepers for all this new technology and knowledge.

Yes, Google and Bing and the like are useful interfaces to find information on the worldwide web, but not particularly useful in navigating the databases that are the new repositories of more specialized information. And Wikipedia has improved greatly, but does not claim to be more than it is – a huge online encyclopedia, and no one ever needed the librarian to show them how to use an encyclopedia – it is pretty obvious how it works. Checking the citations at the end of the articles will give you a pretty good idea about how useful the information is, as well.

But librarians perform many other tasks as well. The new graduates coming out of library school have a good grounding in the fields of computers and database searching, and that has only increased over the years. They also have a good grounding in the more traditional sources and services offered at libraries for the past century and more.

Librarians are still the people who catalog and organize information. They are also the people whose job it is to evaluate information sources in both book and other formats and disseminate the information both to other librarians and to the public. They work with other agencies to offer literacy classes in libraries – both print and digital, and teach patrons how to use those devices that all those clever people keep inventing; iPhones, tablets, e-readers and whatever new devices will come out of the inventor’s workshop next week. Librarians are the ones who are constantly re-educating themselves to use this new technology and introduce it to the public.

But librarians perform many other tasks as well. The new graduates coming out of library school have a good grounding in the fields of computers and database searching, and that has only increased over the years. They also have a good grounding in the more traditional sources and services offered at libraries for the past century and more. Librarians are still the people who catalog and organize information.

They are also the people whose job it is to evaluate information sources in both book and other formats and disseminate the information both to other librarians and to the public. They work with other agencies to offer literacy classes in librariesboth print and digital, and teach patrons how to use those devices that all those clever people keep inventing; i-phones, tablets, e-readers and whatever new devices will come out of the inventors workshop next week.

Librarians are the ones who are constantly re-educating themselves to use this new technology and introduce it to the public. At the same time those same librarians are helping people to use older technologies as well.

It is impossible to research genealogy without using print sources. Many sources have been scanned and are in the online databases, but not all, by any means. Local history is still mainly found in books and newspapers, and as valiantly as librarians have been trying to get all this material scanned and online, it is a very expensive and extremely time-consuming process. The largest newspapers are available digitally – smaller ones tend not to be.

Getting all that material scanned and available is an ongoing process, and an enormous undertaking, and it’s going to take time, and lots of it, before it becomes generally available, and the people who are organizing that work are librarians.

There is a reason why so many authors – people whose jobs require research, include librarians in their lists of people to thank for their help, and it’s not because the librarian smiled at them. It is because they helped find the needed information.

This is a world where there is more and more information being generated each day. The librarian is the one who can help you to get access to that information. Yes, you can answer the easy questions yourself, with your computer or smart phone, but you still need your friendly local librarian for the difficult questions. Celebrate your library and be glad librarians still work there – especially the next time you need help.

Susan Rudnicky
Waterport
Rudnicky is the former director of the Hoag Library in Albion.