A large portion of my job is difficult for people outside of the career field to understand. “Oh so you help people find books they’ll like?” Well, yes (in part), but I also help people find quality information they need to help solve problems. That’s why the degree I’m getting (MLIS) includes both library and information studies. This second part of the field is more difficult to understand sometimes because the general population thinks that the answer to any question can be found in a quick Google search.
It makes my skin crawl when I hear the response "Just Google it!" when someone is asking a genuine question. Yes, there is lots of information that can be acquired by online searches and diving into the resources gathered together. I also want to acknowledge that a person is not obligated to step into the role of teacher just because they were asked a question. However, I dislike the specific phrase “Just Google it!” because it fails to acknowledge the complexities that arise when seeking out that information in the first place.
So, I want to use this post to take a closer look at our old friend the search engine (specifically Internet search engines like Google and Bing) and examine the powers, possibilities, perils, and pitfalls that come with using them. In many cases, it isn’t as simple as a quick search, and I want you all to know why so that you can make more informed choices when deciding what route to go down the next time you are seeking out information.
Same note as I made for How Do We Find Answers?: This post was created as my
final project for LS 500: Information Science. I promise I will be writing more posts that
aren’t just class assignments in the future, but I’ve found this to be a convenient “two
birds, one stone” situation this semester. That being the case, I will also add this
same disclosure below as I did before ➡️
To any fellow MLIS students: Feel free to use this post for inspiration and
exploring resources I’ve linked. However, you do not have my permission to use this
post word-for-word to pass off as your own work in an assignment.
So, let’s get into things. I had choices when it came to what topic I wanted to address. Why did I choose this one? Where am I coming from with this as an MLIS student who currently works in the field as a prison librarian and has past experiences in different forms in public library work? Well, as I established in the first part of this post, I don’t think seeking out information is always as easy as we think it is. However, I am also a strong believer in making information as accessible as possible, and I see part of my job as guiding people through the complicated world of information overload in order to help them find what they are really looking for.
I think any tool that helps in this mission is a great addition to our arsenal, but I also think that these same tools should be treated as such: tools. They are not the answers in and of themselves. I think when we lose focus on what is really going on behind the scenes, then we risk falling into the pitfalls that come from a lack of information literacy.
The first complication in seeking information comes from the nature of information itself. An answer is not always just an answer. To clarify what I mean, I think it would be helpful to revisit my working definition of “information” I gave in my midterm assignment. I originally said it was “Data acquired through observation and/or communication which is then processed by the mind to form knowledge.”
Like I guessed last time, however, I have a bit of editing to do that definition based on what I have since learned about the topic:
Information: Data acquired through observation and/or communication which is then processed by the mind through layers of prior knowledge, subject context, and personal worldviews to form knowledge.
There is a reason why I added the underlined portion to my definition. Sure, you can't clarify every single word in a definition or else it would turn into a book. However, I wanted to add some nuance as to what I think is going on when I use the word "process" because the human form of that is not as straightforward as a computer's approach to processing numbers and figures.
With all that under consideration, what we even consider to be an answer is always going to be colored by our perception of what we are looking at. There is no way to be truly unbiased in this process, but we can attempt to discover and acknowledge our biases in order to rationalize which truly is closest to the truth we seek out.
For example, maybe someone is looking up a recipe for authentic gumbo. They might come across a blog post from a native Louisiana resident who is sharing their family’s recipe from generations back. Instead of writing in “standard English,” however, maybe this person writes the way they speak: with a creole accent that the reader misconstrues as “unprofessional” (or worse “unintelligent”🤦) and they move on to a more “reputable” site, like Bon Appétit, whose recipe developers may not even have a connection to the culture that birthed authentic gumbo but they know how to word the recipe in a way that feels more familiar to the reader.
And yes, this example I gave also touches on the issues of race, class, culture, and other identity issues / biases (conscious or not) that can get in the way of seeking information. The overarching issue, however, is that we can get in our own way as information seekers. This concept has been discussed within information professional spheres by the likes of Leidner and Kayworth with "A Review of Culture in Information Systems Research" as well as Bonnici with Subjectivity Filtering: Finding Cognitive Authority in Online Social Media Opinion Posts.
Search engines can feed into this issue of personal bias due to the way they are designed to pull up results in the first place. There are several algorithms at play, of course, but at least some of them are directly impacted by the behavior of information seekers after the results are displayed. The ultimate goal developers code into these online search engines is to have users keep coming back as well as want to use their site for longer periods of time. (This is even more apparent within sites owned by Google, like YouTube, which prioritize media that keeps users on the website for as many hours as possible.)
Speaking of YouTube, I'm going to drop in a video I think perfect summarizes how online search engines work and what that means for the ways we can most efficiently use them:
On top of this, some search engines, like Bing, are now using artificial intelligence (AI) responses alongside their traditional web results. AI is actually older than we think (first being developed in the 50's). However, it was not until recently that we started seeing AI being used in such impressive ways and at such a high capacity for the public (at least while it remains free). That being said, we are still learning about the potential uses as well as weak spots of current AI technology, but the general public may not be aware of that.
In my personal observation of how various people in my life use search engines (especially those of Generation X and older), there is a tendency to take the information at face value (similar to how they may with a book deemed trustworthy) rather than question where the information came from in the first place and checking to see if the AI presented it in a way that is still true to the original source(s).
This takes us back around to the main issue to begin with: information literacy (as well as fluency!). Those who seek quality information either don't know the skills for decerning the reliable information resources or they have the tips and tricks in their minds but simply don't have the time and / or energy needed to use them. It's not just an older person issue, either. There were reports that came out shortly before this article was written describing how people from Generation Z are more likely to fall victim to cyber scams. (Granted, part of that result may come from the fact Generation Z is more likely to have an extensive online life than any other generation too).
As the technology and tools expand around information seeking, especially in our search engines we take for granted everyday, there will be a greater need in all ages for more extensive education surrounding information literacy and fluency. Introducing this at a greater level in our k12 schools as well as continuing to offer accessible resources for lifelong learning on the topic will be our main way of combating misinformation and eventually having a society that does not know how to seek information and decern the truth.
A group of information seekers who are taught how to use these (new and old) tools well will also be better primed to reap the potential benefits the new technology has to offer. They will know not to take simple search results at face value but rather as a jumping off points in order to dive into the true point of the sources presented (At the moment, Bing AI seems to be especially transparent in their online sources which is helpful in multiple aspects of information seeking). They will then be able to find sources they didn't even know existed and therefore be able to go even deeper on the subject.
I personally have mixed feelings on AI (at least in its current state) due to the unethical nature of how its developers gather the tons of information used to feed it as well as the shortsighted nature people seem to be taking going head-first into the technology rather than first determining the best way forward. This is a technology that has an equal ability to save and ruin lives depending on how people use it. In terms of using search engines to seek information, however, it is already here (either as an option alongside traditional search results and behind the scenes informing the algorithms what to pull up in the first place). That being said, it feels like at least part of our responsibility as information professionals to try to understand this technology as it relates to our field and educate people on its best use.
In the mean time, I'm going to go catch some ZZZ's after a pretty tiring finals week so that I will be well-rested and better prepared to help my patrons with all their information seeking needs.
Till Next Time,
Sam
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