According to the internet, a writer named Andrew Brown said, “The Internet is so big, so powerful and pointless that for some people it is a complete substitute for life.” Of course, it’s difficult to find where that quote came from if you’re looking online; you’re just given the quote and that’s that. Even looking through big, hefty library books, I couldn’t find the source. If this were a paper, I’d be failing. Thankfully, it’s not, and it illustrates why the library is still helpful in today’s ever increasing electronic world.
Our social networks are online, we do our banking online, and some people even find love online. So why bother with the real world at all, especially when it comes to doing something as simple as researching a paper when everything is online?
Your Future Employers Will Thank You.
In a recent report, How College Graduates Solve Information Problems Once They Join the Workplace, it was found that while employers are impressed by new graduates’ online research skills, they found that they were less likely to look at resources that were part of a company itself, from internal reports to the most important: asking an expert. Using the library gives you the skills to look for information in unexpected places, but it also helps you polish your ability to interact with experts and others when you’re seeking information.
Let Me Google That For You!
Sure, librarians use Google too. We use Google everyday, along with other tools to help students, because there’s more information you need than could ever fit in the library. However, librarians like myself can not only teach you how to search better, but also help you figure out which things you find are worth using in a paper, and which might be more trouble when it comes time to hand it in.
We’re Online Too.
Normally, when people think of libraries, they think of books. But libraries, such as those at Front Range Community College, provide a slew of online resources, from links to reliable web pages to entire databases where you can find encyclopedias, ebooks, scholarly articles and more. As a student, these are resources you can access from home, which means you can get reliable material for your classes from the library without having to go to one.
Knowledge Creation.
Formerly known as “the place with the books,” libraries are the place where you can take what you’ve learned from class and make it your own. In doing research with library materials, students begin with class material, and with the help of librarians find new sources of information and build their own understanding of a topic. Librarians can help you sharpen your ideas, find new ideas, and help you build them into a cohesive whole. Good students learn material from class, great students make that material better.
So stop by the library, in person or online, and learn how you can do what you do better: learn.
