T.M.I.

Fred over at WeBreakStuff had an interesting post about the main problem with the world wide web: T.M.I. Too Much Information. These days I feel as though I'm suffering from a more severe case of information overload than ever before (for more on information overload see Wikipedia's coverage of the term). Unlike Fred, I don't have 1500 new items a day in my feed reader, but I do have around 200. And I'm adding new feeds all the time.

But the point is, that with all this information attacking us from all angles, the role of the librarian is becoming even more important, although less and less recognized. So much of the information on the Internet is, well, crap. One of the great things about the Internet is that anyone can publish on it. At the same time, that's one of the biggest drawbacks. Information ranges from high quality to very very low quality, and your friendly and helpful librarian is one of the best resources to help you find the high quality info.

Consult your librarian! Why? Because:

1. Your librarian may know of a better way to find the information you need. Searching through pages of Google results for that elusive article on your topic that you know is out there might be better accomplished in a different search engine, at a certain web site, or in various library resources. Or perhaps even in print (*gasp*).

2. Your librarian may know of a quicker way. Afterall, who doesn't want to save time? Why search through a long list of results when your librarian may have good suggestions for narrowing or limiting your search?

We aren't sitting at the Reference/Information Desk for our health, you know. :)

But, I'm done ranting about the usefulness of librarians. For today anyway.