Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Searching Mindfully: Are Libraries Up To The Challenge Of Competing With Google Books?, Amrita Dhawan

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Traditional research tools used by libraries, such as encyclopedias and catalogs were created in an age of print and information scarcity. They have not kept up with changes in the information world, including an abundance of online information in different formats and the rise of interdisciplinary topics which attempt to solve ‘real world’ messy problems and not traditional theoretical questions. The traditional tools rest on collaboration between OCLC, LOC, private aggregators, librarians and faculty. The search results they deliver offer excessive information with very little guidance on how to systematically sift through them. This makes the research process harder and …