“The Quandary With (In)Query’s”

“The Quandary With (In)Query’s”

My first thoughts as I spent nearly two hours searching for “It’s the Information age, so where’s the Information?” (Jenson, Jill, 2004), where that this whole searching fiasco had much in common with “The Trouble With Tribbles”, an episode of the original Star Trek. In this episode, for the majority of you that are not sci-fi geeks like me, the starship crew had a heck of a time with rapidly breading creatures eating up all their food stores and causing havoc with their electrical maintenance. In any case, I felt as overwhelmed as they appeared to be on the television.
I consider myself an above average student. I feel I have a pretty decent grasp of computer literacy and having a certain amount of research savvy. This assignment proved to me that my opinion of my knowledge and skills is somewhat in error. According to the American Library Association, “To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information” (Jenson). Evidently, I am not as “information literate” as I believed I was.
In her article Dr. Jenson wrote about many topics from what information is out there, to where to find it, to students not knowing what information is useful versus what is just a waste of time. She also detailed that it is a collaborative effort between student and instructor that makes good researchers, not the work of the professor or pupil alone. She explained that her information age students basically would be lost in a library; where some of the best sources for college and professional research can be found. Jenson also highlighted the fact that the same technology fees that students have been complaining about for years, pay for the online library resources that would be so helpful if the students would just learn how to use them. Her article was both enlightening and if nothing else a useful insight into how much we cocky, conceited and very much procrastination prone students are ignorant of.
As I read professor Jenson’s article I began to realize exactly how much I did not know. There are many things that make a particular source reliable, credible, and useful. The search engines on the Internet don’t screen our resources for authenticity or to see how up to date the information is. We have to do that for ourselves. We have to take the time, especially on the web to find out which sources are pertinent, and which just so much dross. As I’ll explain when speaking of tech fees shortly, there are people to screen our sources for us, if you let them.

Another point I really appreciated about the article was how teachers should take more responsibility for ensuring that their students understand how to do research in this technologically advanced age. In every learning environment it is good to have a baseline from which to begin. If you have a diverse class (age, ethnicity, economic…) then you are going to have different levels of tech abilities and knowledge. It is always a good idea to find out where your students are coming from and take them from there to where you want them to be, as opposed to starting nearer to your own knowledge level and just expecting them to keep up. This is not to say that the entire responsibility is upon our esteemed professors. Hardly that! The bulk of the onus is on the pupil, the student. We, as such, must put in the effort to ask the tough questions; those that we may even feel would sound as “stupid questions” in front of our peers. We must learn from our mistakes and put in the time and effort required to fully research our topics of either interest or assignment.
Speaking further to this; we must learn to visit the library. You know that place with books and card catalogs, microfilms and magazines. This is the place where you can find some of the most relevant and credible resources. I remember growing up in the early 80’s and going to the library to look for a book. I did not sit at a computer and search by keyword or any other such bulk tool. I had to know either the title or the author. I had to go over to these stacks of little 3”X5” drawers and pull out cards with a name, title, and a little number that explained where I could find the book. Think of it after searching through those little drawers and finally finding the book I need all I have to show for it is “342.1 Daw”. How was that suppose to help? Then you have to actually go and search through the “stacks” to find the book with that number on it. Finally you have your book. It may even have the information you need in it. If not, as Dr. Jenson says in her article, “… finding a library book by its call number can lead to the happy accident of discovering that all the books on the shelf surrounding that one are about the same topic” (2004). Imagine that, even if your book doesn’t have enough or the correct information, one of the dozen or so around it probably will.
Do you know a place that will more than likely have most of the information you could want for a myriad of college research papers? Your school’s online library, that’s where. You know those “tech fees” you don’t like very much? Well part of that goes into paying for rights to particular information and articles. Another part of it goes into paying the knowledgeable academics who sift through the endless amounts of data to pick the more useful or relevant information so that it is there and accessible to you, the student. Your online library and its architects have enabled you to access an enormous storehouse of pre-screened and credible information (Jenson, 2004). This all without you having to sift through hundreds if not thousands of websites your local search engine brings up; just to see if the data is relevant or up to date, not to mention authentic scholarly work.
As I am writing and thinking of the work I put into this, I realize that even though the syllabus said 750-1000 words for this assignment, I may have already gone over the limit. Perhaps our instructor will credit my extra words to those of a student that went under. In any case, I enjoyed the article; and truth be told the work that went into finding it. A challenge is rarely something I back down from. I also enjoy insight into myself, without that ability I would never have made it through the Army’s Mental Health Specialist Training Course. Thank you all for your time and I sincerely hoped that my thoughts and ideas on this article were worth it.
Randall Bratton