The 'Google Age'

tfpl blog has a posting about Government information in the Google Age in relation to a seminar at the British Library on 2 November they attended.  The event was co-organised by CILIP’s Government Libraries and Information Group, SCOOP and The British Library.

The comments that struck a cord with them also struck a cord with me such as the:

• speed and frequency which not just Government information is produced and updated but all information and the role Google has played in this. 


• Internet being 15 years old in a weeks time and how it has completely changed the way we interact with everyone and everything.


• The 'Google Age'

The ‘Google Age’ is potentially a real challenge to the concept of information literacy. How many people really understand the strengths and the weaknesses of Google? The percentage of people who use only one or two keywords to search, and who never bother to use the Advanced Search functionality is scary - Google indexes only the first three levels of content so the many websites which require the user to drill down four or five levels contain vast amounts of content that will never be found by the average user. In a world where people default to Google when searching for information there is a real risk that we will lose the skills to find and evaluate information effectively.

The final point regarding advance searching is something that John and I have been saying for a while and encouraging project partners and others that it needs to be incorporated into information literacy training both in the workplace and other learning and teaching arenas.