When I decided I wanted to be a
librarian I asked several people what are some of the roles a librarian has.
The word credibility was thrown out there a lot. A librarian’s role is to make
sure that the members have credible information, from credible resources so
they can make credible arguments, etc. Ironically,
when I told people that I wanted to be a librarian most of them told me that
this wasn’t the wisest choice as people didn’t need librarians anymore. The way
my friends saw it was that people today are self-sufficient when it came to the
internet. Many people when faced with a research question hop on to their
computers type the topic into Google and away they go. My friends saw the role
of librarian as obsolete. People could obtain their own information; they
didn’t need the middle man. Problem with this theory is that yes people can
obtain their own information, but how good is that information? That’s where
the concept of credibility as a librarian’s main role came into play.
The Atlas of New Librarianship had a
really interesting point. The Atlas discussed how there is a paradox that goes
on today. This paradox is that people have access to more information than they
could ever dream of, but because of this people have to rely more on those who
provided the information. The Atlas gave the example of buying airplane
tickets. Yes, you can go online to Jet Blue’s website and buy your ticket
yourself, but who is the person that tells you the price of the tickets….Jet
Blue. I thought this was a really interesting point. Many people today just
look for information without wondering who is the person supplying the information.
Could there be bias to the information?
Could the information be out of date? That’s where the word credibility
comes in. A librarian’s role is to find information that is credible. But what is credible? I think I have used the
word credible thousands of times, but never really was able to define it. The Atlas
suggests that credibility is not just about the believability of the
information, but that the information changes your behavior. Think about it, people who believe that certain
news programs are credible will change how they view certain topics. Say a news
program discusses the health care system. If someone believes that to be credible
then chances are this will affect how they vote in regards to health care, or
what politician or programs they support. So believing, truly believing, in
information can change the way you see things. If this is true, no wonder
credibility was the first word out of everyone’s mouth when I asked about the
role of the librarian.
Yet, we
as librarians are not providing credible information by just providing one
resource. The thing that makes librarians important is that they often provide
multiple resources and multiple perspectives. As an education major in
undergrad, my professors constantly berated into me how important it was to
teach a topic from multiple perspectives. For example, if I was teaching the
Revolutionary War I wouldn’t just want to teach students with only the
viewpoint of the American Loyalists. If I did that the students would miss out
on the views of the Patriots or the views of the Native Americans who fought in
the war. How could they truly learn about the Revolutionary War if they only
learned from one resource or one perspective? The same thing goes to all other
types of information. If as a librarian
I hand over just one article to a member, then that member does not necessarily
learn quite as much and that member must take the word of the article as being
correct. With multiple resources from multiple perspectives members gain a
larger overview of the topic they are looking for and can compare and contrast
information to see what is truly correct.
The
last thing about credibility that I found really interesting was the concept
that librarians should be authorities not authoritarians. I did not realize
until I read the Atlas how easy it would be to slip into authoritarian
mode. If librarians only give members
are predetermined list of what are good resources and do not give them a
variety from multiple perspectives then the librarians are not allowing members
to learn and grow. Instead librarians should show members how to make good
choices when it comes to information in sources, and then provide them with
multiple perspectives. The final choice of whether the source is good or not
depends on the context and the goal of the member not necessarily the
predetermined views of the librarian.
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