Comments on: Truth, Information and Knowledge: u r boring me http://acrlog.org/2008/04/30/truth-information-and-knowledge-u-r-boring-me/ Blogging by and for academic and research librarians Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:32:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Marc Meola http://acrlog.org/2008/04/30/truth-information-and-knowledge-u-r-boring-me/comment-page-1/#comment-78657 Marc Meola Mon, 05 May 2008 14:22:56 +0000 http://acrlog.org/?p=794#comment-78657 Barbara, I was referring to the psychological studies about how people believe falsehoods to be true even after they have been told they are false as being at least upsetting. But I'm glad you take solace in the idea that students have always been lousy. Just because things were once bad doesn't make me feel good that things now are just as bad, nor does it mean that things now aren't even worse. I agree we should avoid an oversimplified hell-in-a-handbasket worldview, but the decline of civilization is a little difficult to document empirically. Anecdotes can point to general trends, and it does seem like we're on a downward blip. And if you can read the news in general without being bummed out, can I have what you're having? Barbara,
I was referring to the psychological studies about how people believe falsehoods to be true even after they have been told they are false as being at least upsetting. But I’m glad you take solace in the idea that students have always been lousy.

Just because things were once bad doesn’t make me feel good that things now are just as bad, nor does it mean that things now aren’t even worse. I agree we should avoid an oversimplified hell-in-a-handbasket worldview, but the decline of civilization is a little difficult to document empirically. Anecdotes can point to general trends, and it does seem like we’re on a downward blip.

And if you can read the news in general without being bummed out, can I have what you’re having?

]]> By: Barbara http://acrlog.org/2008/04/30/truth-information-and-knowledge-u-r-boring-me/comment-page-1/#comment-78564 Barbara Sat, 03 May 2008 11:52:43 +0000 http://acrlog.org/?p=794#comment-78564 Hmm... when I read that article, I felt more annoyed than doomed. It was an anecdote about a drunk guy using chat reference, librarians trying very hard to answer it correctly, drunk guy saying "sorry i'm drunk" and logging off. This is not the fall of civilization as we know it. Why is it a cultural disaster that Wikipedia articles come to the top of search on topics in American history? Is it is so surprising that students doing homework just want to get it done (and has that changed in the last hundred years?) And why, so long as I'm asking questions, should we get depressed about an article that suggests the easy availability of information has led to disrespect for truth (and books) using no more than anecdotes and opinion to back it up? Libraries can preserve knowledge. They can try to create conditions where students engage with it. We can help other faculty think about why students may disengage. But the disengagement isn't a product of technology, nor is this generation startlingly different than previous ones. I saw the same behavior in students before the Internet. Maybe that's some of the knowledge we're forgetting: even before Wikpedia they took shortcuts and wrote sloppy papers. Hmm… when I read that article, I felt more annoyed than doomed. It was an anecdote about a drunk guy using chat reference, librarians trying very hard to answer it correctly, drunk guy saying “sorry i’m drunk” and logging off. This is not the fall of civilization as we know it.

Why is it a cultural disaster that Wikipedia articles come to the top of search on topics in American history? Is it is so surprising that students doing homework just want to get it done (and has that changed in the last hundred years?) And why, so long as I’m asking questions, should we get depressed about an article that suggests the easy availability of information has led to disrespect for truth (and books) using no more than anecdotes and opinion to back it up?

Libraries can preserve knowledge. They can try to create conditions where students engage with it. We can help other faculty think about why students may disengage. But the disengagement isn’t a product of technology, nor is this generation startlingly different than previous ones. I saw the same behavior in students before the Internet.

Maybe that’s some of the knowledge we’re forgetting: even before Wikpedia they took shortcuts and wrote sloppy papers.

]]> By: Nathan http://acrlog.org/2008/04/30/truth-information-and-knowledge-u-r-boring-me/comment-page-1/#comment-78516 Nathan Fri, 02 May 2008 14:46:03 +0000 http://acrlog.org/?p=794#comment-78516 Marc, Good to know that someone else thinks about these issues in some depth. I agree the distinction between info and knowledge is too easy. I have put together a presentation which touches on all of these issues (in a lib-ed context) in some depth. Email me if you'd like me to send it to you. ~Nathan Marc,

Good to know that someone else thinks about these issues in some depth. I agree the distinction between info and knowledge is too easy.

I have put together a presentation which touches on all of these issues (in a lib-ed context) in some depth. Email me if you’d like me to send it to you.

~Nathan

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