The Infodiet . . .

The article written by Steven Bell is primarily about substituting Google searches for scholarly information through a library. “The Infodiet: How Libraries Can Offer an Appetizing Alternative to Google” discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the current situation of information research by numerous college students. Bell writes of the convenience and ease of use in Google and typing in keywords for a research paper. He also inscribes how informative and intelligent the scholarly journals, accessible through university libraries, are for an individual doing research on any topic. Not only does he write of the pros and cons, but he uses the comparison by James Morris, dean of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Morris uses the term “infobesity,” referring to the high volume and low quality information that appears when using Google for research topics. Sadly enough, the papers that are written typically have the same low quality as the research papers that the information is from.
Although I see many of the points that Bell is making, I have to confess to using Google too often for research that should probably be done by the library’s journals. Google, as well as other search engines, are so convenient that it is hard to use something so complex when the easier source can take care of what needs to be done. I like the analogy that James Morris made when he compares the information research to the junk diet of low quality. Overall, I enjoyed the passage, and can see that there is definitely a problem with the research habits of many people.