"Somewhere along the way it became a librarian mantra: "Websites bad,
databases good." For better or worse, this is not always the case."
That is probably a bit of over simplification; more like 'Bad
information is bad, do you know how to evaluate?'
Databases should cover multiple points of view, so recognizing the bias
in an individual work is important. Vendors select the resources within
their databases. That rance of resources meet some criteria for quality
and authoritativeness. Part of our selection policy should be based on
their selection policy and process. We don't want to marginalize a point
of view; the resources should be the best advocates of each. Take a look
at the results from searches about any current event or social issue to
see the range of POV. Selected, yes; maybe even a bit limited in full
range ( I don't know if the IWW is writing about Pat Robertson)
Now, all those points of view are available through Yahoogle, but my bet
is any single search's results is going to be much more dependent upon
the word choices used and the results aren't going to have any quality
filter. That means the kids are going to have to go in with enough
background knowledge about the topic to know the range of argument and
POV to find that range, AND know how to evaluate the resource.
Robert Eiffert
Librarian, Pacific MS Vancouver WA
pac.egreen.wednet.edu/library beiffert@egreen.wednet.edu
Librarian in the Middle Blog: beiffert.net robert@beiffert.net
Megan Frazer wrote:
>I wanted to commend Floyd Pentlin for his look at databases and the
>Internet. It was thoughtful and thorough. More importantly, the issue is
>one we really should be thinking about. Somewhere along the way it became
>a librarian mantra: "Websites bad, databases good." For better or worse,
>this is not always the case. We spend a lot of time trying to break
>through the prejudices and assumptions of our students and teachers. It's
>great to see a librarian tackling some of our own.
>
>
>
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