7.3. Network Culture

The Internet has shifted the landscape of informed decisions , but the impact is not entirely positive. For insight into the dark side, ask librarians. They'll tell you about students who never visit the library, but instead surf the web for a few good hits, with little appreciation for the authority, accuracy, currency, and quality of their sources. They'll lament the public's lack of appetite for Boolean search. They'll complain that scholarly networked databases and peer-reviewed journals sit untouched, while Google churns out fast food for the minds of the masses. Librarians are on the front lines of an invisible struggle over our information diet and, for better or worse, the scales are not tipping in their direction. In fact, according to Peter Lyman, a distinguished professor at UC Berkeley's School of Information Management and Systems, it's already too late:

There's been a culture war between librarians and computer scientists.
And the war is over. Google won.^[*]

^[*] "Search for Tomorrow" by Joel Achenbach. Washington Post, February 15, 2004, p. D01. Available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42885-2004Feb14?language=printer.