nurture young librarians!

Marylaine has a short astute piece on the importance of younger librarians to the profession.

In the face of rapid demographic, technological and political change, we must do everything we can to make our entire organization smarter and nimbler, which includes hiring and listening to new young librarians. The fact is that “what everyone knows” is sometimes wrong, which explains the extended time-lag between when a revolutionary new theory is proposed and when it is generally accepted as true: it’s the time required for defenders of existing theories to die and get out of the way. [thanks celia]

Gary Price Guru Interview

Gary Price interviewed in Library Link. He’s been asked so much about Google and librarians, he’s got a good answer handy.

LL: How can librarians stay ahead of the perception that everything people need is two clicks away on Google?

GP: Google and other web engines are fine for certain types of searching. However, it’s not the best choice in some situations. The challenge for us is not only telling people about what Google and other web engines can offer but also showing them what’s not available. Likewise, we can demonstrate how to be a better web search engine searcher. This is valuable info for many people. Why? With the help and knowledge of a good information professional we can help to save the time of our users. This is a commodity everybody wants to have more of.