Librarian’s Role in the Age of Abundance

In Dr. Roland’s lecture “From Script to Print,” he talks about an information explosion, provoked by the invention of the printing press.  There is a new information explosion now, at a more foundational level, which relates to the ease of publishing information on the web.  Before the expansion of our digital world, information was disseminated by professional printers.  An information seeker could be somewhat assured that before a resource was published, the facts were verified for accuracy.  One could in many cases even peruse the list of resources used to produce the resource.  As knowledge became cumulative, it was also deemed reliable.   

Access to the digital world has changed this.  Anyone can create a web page, post a video on YouTube, or edit an article in Wikipedia.  The assurance that a work of non-fiction has been fact-checked does not exist on the web.  With this same abundance of inaccuracy comes an increased level of laziness on the part of the information seeker.  Dr. Roland talks about this laziness in our second lecture for this week concerning knowledge in the age of abundance.  This plethora of imprecision coupled with an increased level of indolence is a toxic combination for information seekers.  Additionally, the sheer volume of information on any given subject, the hyperlinked data, all leads to the fact that we as information seekers often cannot find what we need.  Going forward, I believe that librarians will play an increasingly important role in assisting information seekers.  While we may not be able to manage and control information at the same level as it was in the Information Age, perhaps our contributions to the Age of the Web can enhance the skill set needed in the digital world, as we learn to discern and access the essential information from the abundance found on the web.