Facts and BS-detector-development, then, John. And thanks for
recognizing the intended meaning of my original statement.
Yes, some important elements of BS-detection can be objectively
settled upon--for example, the need to consider an "information"
source's self-interests, affiliations, other prejudices, and past
track record. In that sense, yes, I actually would agree with you
about this being a good set of expectations for librarians. Education
should accompany information seeking in so many cases. Patronizing?
Hell no! In fact, I've especially described a good part of the jobs of
school librarians, which is why I consider the Los Angeles pols--the
ones distinguishing them from "teachers"--to be morons.
David
David Rothman
Cofounder, LibraryCity.org
703-370-6540
@librarycity on Twitter
On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 5:12 PM, john g marr <jmarr_at_unm.edu> wrote:
> On Tue, 24 May 2011, Laval Hunsucker wrote:
>
>> David H. Rothman wrote :
>
>>> Maybe we can say that the role of librarians is for them to encourage
>>> patrons to be their own truth-seekers, just so the users have the facts to
>>> be intelligent about it.
>
> Pretty reasonable statement, since one needs "facts" ("truth") in order to
> seek same, but what patrons really need are objective guidelines as to how
> to distinguish "truth" from manipulation in materials representing
> themselves as factual.
>
>> It still sounds pretty patronizing (and condescending) to me, though
>> possibly I'm misreading just where you're coming from.
>
> I suspect there is a misreading afoot, since it would be highly patronizing
> *not* to train and encourage patrons to be their own truth-seekers.
>
>> James Rettig ... wrote ... "every information seeker should be free of the
>> librarian's expectations"
>
> That would depend upon how you might define a "librarian's expectations."
> Mine would be that every information seeker can learn how to discern the
> nature of objective "truth."
>
> jgm
>
> John G. Marr
> Cataloger
> CDS, UL
> Univ. of New Mexico
> Albuquerque, NM 87131
> jmarr_at_unm.edu
> jmarr_at_flash.net
>
>
> **There are only 2 kinds of thinking: "out of the box" and "outside
> the box."
>
> Opinions belong exclusively to the individuals expressing them, but
> sharing is permitted.
>
Received on Tue May 24 2011 - 17:37:03 EDT