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We must start teaching students about 'information nutrition'!
While we're looking at where, when, and how to spend money on digital resources, we need to think long and hard about how we're promoting them. Consider for a moment that, while teachers and professors ask students to find information for a paper, it seems they don't always make distinctions for students on what they should or shouldn't use. Certainly, some say, "Use the library." Others make statements like, "You need 10 references and only two can come from the Internet." Does that mean eight have to be from print sources? You get the impression that not everyone understands that the Internet is just a delivery means. Do teachers and professors understand that there are so many library-based options offered electronically, and that almost all of them can be accessed over the Internet? And that there are many valid options that are not library-based?
But it's even worse when they give little or no direction at all. If a professor simply says, "Go get some information," there's a chance the students will go get the junk that is the fastest and easiest to find. It's sort of like telling students, "Go get something to eat at the mall." What do you think the chances are that students will find the food they like best, without considering its nutritional quality?
Students Are 'Websumers'
Everybody knows that when students are told to find information for class work or homework, their first (and probably only) stop will be the Internet. That's a given, right? And it would be OK if students saw the Internet as a delivery channel for information resources of various quality. But they don't. They are "Websumers"-to them the Internet is a one-- stop shopping place where you can get information, even if you can't (or don't) distinguish between partial vs. complete, authoritative vs. dubious, biased vs. unbiased, old vs. current, or accurate vs. inaccurate information.
Who is contributing to the delinquency of Websumers? Teachers? Professors? Librarians?
The fact that that the Internet is just a delivery medium, and can point to all kinds of information, is not the issue. Yes, you can find almost anything on the Web, from product information to journal articles to...