ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries O c to b er 1 9 9 7 / 6 2 5 The W a y I See It G r e a tly e x a g g e r a te d d e a th o f th e lib r a r y B y A r l e n e R o d d a Q u a r a t ie llo F inding inform ation via com puters a lo ne is not that easy Misleading media messages As a librarian, th e re are a n u m b e r o f television com m ercials that irritate me. O ne is th at Packard Bell a d th a t p o rtray s libraries as “forb id d in g hostile p la c e s.”1 A n o th er is a co m m ercial in w h ich a w o m a n p o se s th e follow ing q u estio n to h e r com puter: “H o w m any room s are in the Vatican?” T h e co m p u te r im m ediately re sp o n d s w ith a v id e o clip o f a g am e s h o w h o st asking this sam e q u e stio n to th ree contestants, o n e o f w h o m , to th e delight o f th e w o m an at hom e, answ ers it correctly. Librarians k n o w th at finding inform ation is n o t as easy as th e se com m ercials a n d th e m e ­ dia in gen eral w o u ld lead o n e to believe. T he p ro m ise o f quick inform ation m ight sell co m ­ puters, b u t it’s far from b ein g a reality. O n e o f th e ch allen g es acad em ic librarians face is c o n ­ vincing im p ressio n ab le students, w h o are b o m ­ b a r d e d w ith m isle a d in g m e s sa g e s, th a t th e W orld W ide W eb is n o t all it’s crack ed u p to be, th at it’s n o t p o ssib le for th em to d o all their research in th eir d o rm room s ev en if they d o hav e th e b est co m p u ters, a n d th at th e library is still a vital institution at th e h eart o f the college cam pus. Desk Set: A more realistic picture In contrast to cu rren t m edia im ages is o n e of m y favorite m ovies, D esk Set, starring K atharine H ep b u rn as B unny W atson, a librarian at a tele­ vision station, a n d S p en cer Tracy as R ichard Sum ner, a co n su ltan t w h o is h ired to m ak e th e station m o re efficient by installing EMMARAC (Electro-M agnetic M em ory A nd R esearch Arith­ m etical C alculator). A lthough this m ovie w as m a d e 40 years ago, its th em es are surprisingly relev an t to th e issues o f inform ation retrieval th at c o n c e rn us today, n o t only in academ ic libraries b u t in all libraries. In th e film’s clim actic scene, S u m n er’s assis­ tant, Miss W arriner, has arrived to o p e ra te the new ly installed Em m y (as th e co m p u te r is af­ fectionately n ick n am ed ) w h ile B unny a n d h e r staff h av e just received p in k slips. As th e p h o n e b eg in s to ring, B unny a n d th e others, believ­ ing th em selv es fired, refuse to a n sw e r it, so Miss W arriner picks it u p in frustration. T he caller n e e d s to k n o w if th e king o f th e African W atusi tribe drives a car. Miss W arriner types in th e q u e stio n “D oes th e king o f th e W atusis drive a car?” After em itting a series o f dram atic “b lip s” a n d “b o o p s ,” Emm y spits o u t review s o f a fictional a d v e n tu re film a b o u t th e W atusis, w h ic h h ard ly p ro v id e a n a n sw e r to th e q u e s ­ tion. M eanw hile, th e p h o n e k e e p s ringing, an d n e ith e r S u m n er n o r Miss W arriner is ab le to a n sw e r an y q u estio n s accurately. B unny an d h e r crew d ecid e to strut th eir stuff, springing into action to a n sw e r every q u estio n w ith o u t Em m y’s help. After a m e s se n g e r delivers a p in k slip to Sum ner, a n d th e p resid en t o f th e station calls to co m p lain th a t h e to o h as g o tten o n e, it b e ­ com es a p p a re n t th at a n o th e r co m p u ter recently installed in th e payroll d ep artm en t has m alfunc­ tio n ed , firing every o n e b y m istake. After reas­ suring the librarians that they h a v e n ’t b e e n fired, S um ner inform s B unny th at Em m y w as nev er in te n d e d to rep lace th e library staff, b u t to as­ sist th em w ith ted io u s q uestions, allow ing them m ore tim e to perform co m p lex research. B unny d ecid e s to give th e c o m p u te r a chance, asking, “H o w heav y is th e earth?” to w h ich Em m y re ­ plies, “W ith or w ith o u t p eo p le?” A rle n e R o d d a Q u a ra tie llo is a fr e e la n c e writer a n d p a rt-tim e reference lib a ria n a n d the f o r m e r co o rd in a to r o f lib ra ry instru ction a t the E m erson College Library in Boston; e-m a il: arqinfo@ shore. net 6 2 6 / C & R L News Katharine Hepburn, referen ce librarian par ex c e lle n c e , challenges Spencer Tracy’s computer in the D e sk Set. Technology as a tool I ap p reciate D esk Set b ecau se, aside from its assertio n th at n o n c o m p u te riz e d so u rces can som etim es b e th e b est sources o f inform ation, it su p p o rts th e idea that tech n o lo g y is m erely a to o l a n d can n o t replace th e expertise o f librar­ ians. C om puters can n o t think like h u m an b e ­ ings, w h o have the ability to p o se q uestions in the ap p ro p riate context. T o offer a real-life ex­ am ple, I tried to find inform ation ab o u t Desk Set o n th e W eb. My initial AltaVista search did n o t em p lo y any ad v an ced tech n iq u es so I re­ trieved useless ads for p h o n e s an d d e sk orga­ nizers (I sh o u ld have k n o w n better). W h en I u sed th e search statem ent +“d e s k s e t ” + la n g , how ever, I fo u n d a small set o f highly relevant sites because this search statem ent only retrieved th o se sites w hich co n tain ed b o th d e s k s e t (as a p h rase) an d l a n g (th e last n am e o f th e direc­ to r o f th e film). T h e reality is that m ost students that I e n ­ c o u n te r rely o n sim ple searches. T hey d o n ’t u se B oolean logic. T hey pro b ab ly d o n ’t realize th at m o st W eb search engines insert “o r” b e ­ tw e e n th e w o rd s they enter. In general, they h a v e n ’t got a clue that AltaVista searches the co m p lete text o f sites w hile Lycos restricts its search to th e m o st significant parts. M a n y d o n ’t k n o w t h a t search in g th e W eb differs from searching a periodical index accessed via th e Web. T he m edia have given them th e im pression that com put­ ers a re brilliant m ach in es th at will re a d th eir m inds a n d give th em exactly w h at th ey n e e d w ith little effort o n th eir part. T he reality is th at com ­ nna mtte B-sibro C/reg inrp S t:iderc otoh P puters are quite dum b; li­ brarians are th erefore indis­ p en sab le as interm ediaries. A r e c e n t B o s to n G lo b e M a g a z in e article e v e n re­ ferred to librarians as “the as­ tronauts o f cyberspace.”2 I heartily agree. As the novelty o f the Web begins to w ear off and students realize that find­ ing information is not as easy as ads for computers make it seem, I hope that they emerge from their dorm rooms and re­ alize that there will always be a need for libraries and librarians. Perhaps the information they need m ight e v e n b e fo u n d in a book! N o t e s 1. Edith McCormick, “P ackard B ell’s Scary Sell,” A m e r ic a n Libraries 27, no. I I (D ecem ­ b e r 1996): 17. 2. Jo h n Yemma, “Navigators o f the Net,” Bos­ ton Globe, 14 July 1996, Sunday Magazine, p.7. ■ Share your opinion with C&RL N ew s readers C&RL News is looking for w ell-reasoned com ­ m entaries o n issues o f interest to academ ic a n d research librarians for its colum n “T he Way I See It." It’s an o p p o rtu n ity to share y o u r thoughts w ith a national audience. Es­ says sho u ld b e b e tw e e n 500-750 w o rd s and sh o u ld b e sen t to “T he W ay I See It,” C&RL News, ACRL, 50 E. 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