I stumbled across this short (minute and half) video of Neil Gaiman speaking about the value of libraries and librarians at the same time I have been thinking about the changing information landscape.

So much has changed since I was a student. Gaiman illustrates it so perfectly when he talks about how getting information used to be like “sending a librarian off into the desert to come back with the one rock you need” (Gaiman, 2010, 1:35) It used to be that “information was currency” but now the wealth of information is too much. When I picture the current information landscape an image of Scrooge McDuck swimming in his colossal vault of gold coins springs to mind. Students have to find the one true nugget of information and not be tricked by fool’s gold.

It is the teacher librarian who is there to teach students to accurately and ethically mine information and gain true wealth of knowledge. As Gaiman puts it so well, “Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one.”

 

DuckTales TV logo – Wikipedia. (2019, May 13). Retrieved May 19, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DuckTales_TV_logo.svg

Gaiman, N. [IndyPL]. (2010, April 19). Neil Gaiman on Libraries [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH-sR1uCQ6g