I have actually been applying a lot of what I have been learning already. At my current job I do a lot of investigating and research and while my job is not currently in a library or library setting I have been using strategies that we have been learning. I can't always just get the information I need with a few Google clicks and so I need to creative sometimes or focus my search more before finding what I need. I try to think about the words I use while searching, where I am looking to get my information, and how I should evaluate the information I find. I also have to note the information I find and so I always try to think about how those who are reviewing the information I found and how I should word or present my information based on that.  Once I complete the program I am hoping to eventually work in a medical library and I feel that I can definitely apply many of the skills I learned here in searching for and evaluating medical information. To me the information landscape is a vast environment full of avenues and destinations. As librarians we are the guides that help get users on to the right avenue to get to their desired destination. There is a quote from Sarah Mclntyre that reads "A trained librarian is a powerful search engine with a heart." I believe this to be accurate as while we go to search engines to find answers we go to librarians as well and while librarians might not work as fast as a search engine they have what a search engine doesn't which is heart. Librarians have the capacity to be compassionate and go the extra mile that a search engine won't or communicate with a user in a way that a search engine can't. The information landscape is an intimidating and overwhelming place and information professionals help make it a less overwhelming and intimating. 

Search matters a lot to me personally; this class gave names to things I’ve done my whole life, and affirmed for me that the way I tend to interact with search and information (with excitement, curiosity, and also skepticism) means that librarianship is a good fit. But it’s important for all of us, because we mediate our own information needs in an unprecedented way in today’s information landscape. Strong search skills are essential to being healthy, educated, connected—all the things that make up a successful society. It’s as important a life skill as I can think of, really, in today’s world. And I feel that this class has equipped me with a lot more understanding of best practices, of some of the barriers we face to effective search, of the systems we are interacting with and up against, and of how we can communicate this to the patrons we will serve.

When I imagine the information landscape, it is not clean. It is not linear. I cannot possibly know its every detail or travel to its every corner—it’s a whole universe unto itself (which is what I was trying to convey in my picture). In fact, there is far more that I will never really know—from specific databases’ controlled vocabularies to areas of the dark web—than I will. But if I have my trusty search toolkit (my favorite metaphor from this class), I can figure it out, and equally importantly, help someone else who might be feeling the same anxiety I felt—and still sometimes feel!—do the same.

One of my biggest ahas was definitely that the surface web only indexes between ~4 and 10% of the internet. Admittedly, for some people, that 4-10% might be all they need, but now I’m very aware of the fact that I need to feel out how much I need.

Another big aha was that people are really seriously working on not only improving existing search methods but also creating more-or-less new ones (e.g., ChatGPT, literature visualizers). This is obvious in retrospect but, since I spent a lot of my time with eminently practical librarians, nobody had a lot of time to experiment with search. I think this is really important for me because it will hopefully get me to ask not only “what information do I need?”, but also “has someone created a tool to make this kind of search easier/better?”

One thing is that “siloes” don’t just apply to academics who never read outside their sub-field. Siloes are big infrastructural problems including paywalls, how indexers work, document file types, and a lot more. I think that’s really important because, historically, I’ve just assumed that more-or-less everything I needed could be found on the surface web or a database accessible via Rutgers. Now, instead of just thinking about which terms/fields/search method I’m using, in the future I think I’ll also pay more attention to where the information I need might be found.

Another threshold is that, as an information professional, finding stuff is not my only important skill. My ability to interpret and synthesize results (or lack thereof) is also helpful. That’s for sure going to change how I communicate with patrons and how I view what counts as “value-added” search help.

You can see what search means to me in the picture at the top of this post. In short, I (the tiny person in the picture) am small in comparison to the broader information world (the forest). But, this class has given me some tools (the big rock giant) that should make me slightly more capable of exploring to find what I need.

Also, image credit to Tomislav Jagnjic. Not only is he a talented artist, he also has a remarkable gift for giving his art funny names. For instance, the picture above is titled “yo bro is it safe down there in the woods? Yeah man it’s cool”. 

 

I think one of my biggest takeaways from this semester is that search is always evolving and that you will need to continue to learn to stay on top of new technologies. That said, there’s nothing wrong with needing time to get better at new things. I’m reminded in our first weeks of the saying “Your first search is only for you” and the many voices of search we heard from that said not to worry if you’re nervous at first, expertise will come with experience. I will continue to use the strategies I’ve learned in this class in order to feel more comfortable with them, but of course I will continue to learn throughout my professional career. While I may not be an expert at the moment, as I continue to traverse the information landscape with my search strategies in mind, I will become more adept at the search process. 

 

Please enjoy this Succession/search class crossover meme. It made me laugh while I created it but I also think it’s true: there are so many search strategies that we now keep in our ludicrously capacious search bags.

Search Activity #3, the command line/free text search in dialog, really opened my eyes to how intense and multilayered searching can be. I had never thought of searching like an equation, splitting my search into facets, and combining sets of results. It’s overwhelming to think of how deep you can take it. Hearing from Amy Affelt in Voices of Search made me realize that in many jobs, you are hired to search as hard, as far, and as thoroughly as you can because the stakes are high. The database comparison activity forced me to think like a user in a specific field, in my case public policy, and really plumb the depths of three different databases. I found it really useful to be positioned as a librarian needing to make a purchase for the collection and then assessing each database’s capabilities. In Assignment #1 I ended up selecting one of these databases, and the process of creating this presentation showed me all the different creative options available for information delivery. Before this assignment I had not considered merging screencasting with a slideshow. I was pleased with the outcome, but after perusing my peers’ presentations I also can see the benefits of creating instructional sites that allow the user more control in how they take in the information.

This class has deepened my understanding of a search professional’s duties and responsibilities. As a librarian, it will be my job to help people find and access information, organize it, make sense of it, and use it to move the world forward. The image of the layers of the ocean that we saw throughout week eight when discussing the deep web really stuck with me. My information landscape is the ocean, and most of us skim along the surface doing basic Googling. My job as an information professional is to don my scuba suit and help people access information that is less easily accessible and potentially more valuable. I have to know where to look and what the best tools are to access that information.

Before this semester, I was in a rut with the way I searched. I searched the same way over and over, Markey calls it the, “flying by the seat of your pants” search. I didn’t stop to think or break down my search, I just hopped right in with the keywords that were the most apparent. Now, I find myself stopping to conduct facet analysis, re-formatting the way my search results are presented, and using Booleans more frequently than before. It amazes me how one semester can re-frame a practice. I notice that I am more conscious of my search and how I am going about it.

I’ve already started using the search tips learned here in the Children’s Room at my job. Markey’s VoS this past week challenged us to teach these search skills. When I am conducting a search, even a small one, I make sure I am voicing what I am doing to my patrons. I try to turn my computer when I can to bring patrons into the search experience.  I also now have a wealth of search portals and resources that I did not have before this semester. I am excited to start referring these resources to my patrons. 

This semester has taught me that search, like all other skills, will always require practice. There will always be a new piece of technology or update to search that will require learning. I chose to represent this in my image of a person running on a treadmill. This person is getting stronger by running but also never truly gets to the finish line. There will always be something new on the horizon!

Librarians and information professionals do like to search- as we have heard throughout the semester from VoS guests- especially Mary Ellen Bates- and each other, information professionals like to navigate the depths of the information landscape. I used to think that this meant that becoming an information professional or librarian meant you had to know or memorize all the resources available (what an intimidating idea), but this semester has taught me that it is more about knowing where to search, how to perform relevant searches, and being flexible and creative in our thinking to find what we or our patrons/clients need. Personally I love to search, so much that I often can’t find that point of ‘enough’. But the assignments throughout this class helped me start to learn how to find that stopping point based on the audience I might be searching for- constraining my search by time, user needs, and availability of information. 

As I hope to one day work in a public library, I hope to be able to apply what I have learned this semester when working with patrons to help them meet their information needs. This class taught me not to be intimidated by endless databases and information like grey literature. I may still have a lot to learn but I have a better grasp and more tools to use going forward. Search has become such a part of our daily lives through voice assistants and the ‘searchphones’ we all rely on to navigate our tech heavy existence. As information professionals we are uniquely situated to understand how search works, what we can do to improve our own searches, and how to use the available tools to help others as we develop a professional practice in our careers. 

I think this class has shown me that as people, we will never stop searching and as information professionals we will never stop learning new technologies as strategies about search. 

 

I know I will be using many of the search tactics that we learned in this class throughout my career. One of my biggest “mind-blown” moments was early in the semester when we learned that the first search is for us, as a pre-search to understand the landscape a little better. I used this tactic to answer a reference question in another course and it helped me exponentially. 

 

There are many highlights as well. It was great to hear from so many professionals in Voices of Search. I also really liked exploring the new, non-traditional, ways that we search, such as with AI and ChatGPT, social media, and digital assistants. These tools and platforms have changed the ways in which people find information, far beyond just using Google, databases, or reference books. Speaking of Google, I’m also really impressed by how many different products they offer, many of which I didn’t know about until this course. 

This course has taught me that ethical concerns permeate every aspect of information science. As Safiya Umoja Noble said in the presentation that we watched in week 7, “technology is a social construct.” As such, information tools such as algorithms can often reflect societal discrimination against marginalized groups. Eli Pariser’s TedTalk from week 6 was a potent reminder that algorithms can create filter bubbles for users that shape their perceptions and opinions, sometimes in troubling ways. It’s not only well-known companies like Google that are problematic. Amanda Ros’ 2019 article “The Bias Hiding in Your Library” pointed out how societal discriminatory language is embedded in library classification systems, while the 2018 documentary Paywall explained how the academic publishing industry is controlled by a handful of powerful corporations. It’s up to information professionals to educate themselves about these ethical concerns and find creative ways to offset the negative impact of bias and discrimination. 

Throughout the semester, the terms “tool” and “toolkit” were used to describe the concepts we were learning about. These metaphors are particularly significant to me since I worked for many years as a carpenter and cabinet maker. I find it useful to view the information landscape as a workshop or construction site, and information professionals as skilled workmen. The quantity and quality of the tools being used will directly impact the speed with which the project is completed and the satisfaction of the clients. Similar to a carpenter’s tools, in order to utilize databases, artificial intelligence, and Google effectively, one must practice until the use of these resources becomes second nature. 

I chose this meme to represent search in the information landscape because research can often feel like finding a needle in a haystack without the right tools.