Why Books, Libraries, and Librarians are Still Relevant

With the internet providing vast amounts of information at the touch of a button, librarians are essential for teaching students how to access the most appropriate information and weed through everything. Teaching students skills like website evaluation and keyword searching are even more important now that students are going to the web first. For example, Gooling "Pocahontas and History" will return different results than just searching for "Pocahontas."

Also, not everything is available on the web. The internet does offer amazing amounts of information, but when students are doing extensive term papers, they will need more. They will need books, newspapers, and magazines. They will need to be able to access information using more than one medium and they will need someone to teach them what sources are out there and how to use them.

Students need to be taught effective search search strategies so that they can make a comprehensive plan for finding the necessary information. They need to be able to identify what they are searching for and where they will be able to find it. Without these tools, provided by media specialists, students will be left with whatever sites Google turns up first and the occasionally unreliable articles on Wikipedia.