Searches and Such

A Luddite in the Library.

I’ve been saving this article to share with you all for a while.

Luddite in the Library, by Diana Wagman

After reading this article a few weeks ago, I felt that I could not simply pass the article along to you, good reader, without some objections on my part. Upon revisiting the article for this blog post, I discovered the part that bothered me most:

I spent three hours at the library and did not learn much about Luddites, but what I did find actually gave me chills. This is what I discovered: If you have a specific destination, the Web is the place to go. If you just need to search, there is no place like the library.

I disagree with this statement. The library is a place to go for any kind of search - specific, or broad, or just to browse. And, you know who has the skills to make these searches go better for you (and sounds like broke down in this article): librarians. (I would imagine you guessed I might say that, though.

The truth of the matter is a librarian can help you find specific information. This is usually facilitated through a reference interview, to help the librarian know as much about your need as possible. My reference class this past semester covered all the pertinent information about the reference interview - and that process is designed to find specific pieces of information.

Of course, you might be trying to find something like the book you just read and enjoyed. Well, librarians can help with that as well, though a process called reader’s advisory. And are you just browsing for items in a broad subject heading? We can help there as well, with our knowledge of our collections, as well as the Library of Congress subject headings.

So, let me tell you reader, that your local library is the perfect place to conduct any kind of search!