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Commentary – Information Literacy Imperative in Higher Education

Todd J. Wiebe, Association of American Colleges and Libraries: “…When you “Google it,” you are engaged in an information snatch and grab—get in, get out, move on. Folks who work in web design and Internet marketing are well versed in search engine optimization and the critical importance of having a link appear on the first page of someone’s search results. A study done by Chitika, a major online advertising network, found that over 70 percent of Google search “clicks” go to the top three results. Over 90 percent click only on the first page (results 1–10), and the likelihood of someone clicking on the first result on the second page drops 140 percent from that of the last result on the first page. One might argue that our tendency to look only so deep is like a natural defense mechanism against information overload in the online environment. And what’s wrong with this? This approach to search usually is plenty sufficient and, well, extremely efficient. It becomes a problem, however, when students rely on this tried and true tactic in pursuit of answers to more complex and nuanced questions—non-trivia-type questions, if you will. And I’m not talking about Google versus the library; I’m talking about “Googling it” (now speaking metaphorically for “convenience searching,” wherever it is you are looking) as opposed to really searching—digging, locating, uncovering, reading, evaluating, synthesizing, perhaps spinning off into an unexpected tangent, and then recalibrating, asking for help, searching again in a different place (a novel idea, right?)…”

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