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Education Libraries Volume 28, No.2 Winter 2005  4 

 

 

 
 
 
What is one core value of academic libraries? Providing relevant information – and the means to access it 
physically and intellectually – for their clientele. An underlying premise in that endeavor is librarian 
awareness and responsive to potential users. What information do academicians and students need and 
want? How do they go about satisfying those needs?  
 
In this digital age, do these behaviors change? Do the resources change? The ultimate purposes remain 
the same: gathering information and making meaning of it in order to make decisions or apply 
information. Nevertheless, technology has certainly impacted how people go about this process: from 
creating and dissemination information all the way to how information is used and repurposed. The 
question “Is there enough information?” has largely been replaced by “How can I determine which 
information is accurate and relevant?”  
 
Chris Bober and Anne Wade explore web sites that discuss information seeking issues. They mention 
sites that review the literature in this field, and note specific studies on various aspects of information 
seeking.  
 
Even though information in digital form offers much more access, its very ubiquity can undermine its 
value. Because online documents might not undergo rigorous vetting, the quality of digital information can 
be very uneven. Cautious faculty members sometimes over-generalize the situation, and undervalue 
perfectly valid studies if they appear in e-journals. Charles Webber discusses this and other important 
issues in electronic publishing for Education Libraries. The topic is particularly timely as the Education 
Division is starting to provide this peer-reviewed journal in electronic format as a means to provide more 
timely information. The jury is out as to the future of the print version of Education Libraries.  
 
The interest in information seeking behaviors seems to have avalanched as several special journal issues 
and edited monographs are being developed at this very minute. As a result, it is an author’s market in 
terms of finding venues for publishing. With its specialized readership, Education Libraries has had a 
difficult time getting just the right articles. Because Lori Mestre and Linda Salem have located so many 
good new reference titles, and because several new titles have been reviewed for the membership, it is in 
the best interests of the division to disseminate its information in a timely manner rather than wait for 
additional, perhaps less useful articles.  
 
Information waits for no person.