Reading Response 4

This article makes a lot of valid points about “infobesity” and the need for an “infodiet.”  With me being a student, I have a biased opinion on the subject.  “Google-izing” information is very, very convenient, although I wouldn’t advise google for extensive research methods, such as applied and application integration, but only a means for basic research for ones own personal gain.  I can agree with the author on that point, but, although I do agree with that, I cannot attest to NOT using google for an extensive search.  A lot of college students are in a big rush, and most are heavy procrastinators, so if I can, I will speak for most college students when I say, we just don’t have time to use massive databases such as EBSCOHost.  In these case’s, we turn to google for a ‘quick fix’.  I can see how using this quick inefficient way of research, I can see how this has lead to a drop in the overall quality of the research work as a result of poor research methods.  Once again, I agree with some parts of the article, it makes a lot of valid points, but with me being a college student I can understand why this has happened…I’m not promoting “infobesity” nor downing “infodieting”—I’m just being realistic, and the time we live in now, the need for quick and easy information is in high demand, and with technology evolving and becoming more and more faster, I don’t see “infodieting” being feasible at all.


Bell, S. (2004). The Infodiet: How Libraries Can Offer an AppetizingAlternative to Google. Chronicle of Higher Education, 50(24), B15. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Reading Response 3

So libraries are the next big thing huh?  I see what this first article (Linda Holmes) is trying to portray about the library being “cool” but I just don’t buy into it just yet.  Sure the library has plenty of positive attributes she points out such as the free stuff that the library gives out, and the free wifi, and the openness to the public.  She left a few things out; the library is an awesome to be social, and meet new people, if you are a socially extroverted person, the library could be a paradise.  But on the other hand, I find it very hard to believe that anyone would find it the least bit entertaining to watch a library feud over library funds.  There will be no arena for a match against public libraries, competing for government funds.  I’m all for the library and its uses but really?  How boring would that be?  There is a TV show on MTV called “Silent Library,” where the contestants have to compete in absurd activities such as a pie smashing contest and yet still keep quiet or else they would lose, and forfeit the prize.  That is entertainment, but it’s not plausible because in no instance would anyone be able to do the things that they do on this TV show.

The article by Sue Dremann is also on the same level, and I’m all for making libraries cooler to be more appealing to younger kids and the population as a whole, and I feel like the restructuring of libraries is long overdue.  In my opinion libraries should represent the current, and not “of the future” as Dremann states in the title of her article.  By that I mean, libraries should reflect on the society in which it stands as the center of, and currently what is going on at the time.  It shouldn’t be a place where anyone is intimidated by the technology, that will only be a repellant.  As for the wii’s and game systems, I’m all for it.  Usually when I think about the library I think about inordinate amounts of stress just piling up, to the point where I hate coming to the library because it can be so easily associated with depression and stress.  I think making the libraries more sociable would definitely help out with the attractiveness of libraries.  The last thing is that I completely disagree with Dremann with her painting librarians as the super cool, super fast almost superheroes…I mean their really cool, just not superheroes, not quite yet.  Maybe when libraries hover, then they’ll be extremely cool.

Holmes, Linda. "Why The Next Big Pop-Culture Wave After Cupcakes Might be Libraries." Blog. NPR. NPR. Linda Holmes, 10 July 2010. Web. 7 Oct. 2010. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/07/20/128651136/why-the-next-big-pop-culture-wave-after-cupcakes-might-be-libraries>

Dremann, Sue. "'The library of the Future begins to Emerge." Palo Alto Online News. 13 Mar. 2009. Web. 10 Oct. 2010. <http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=11573>.