Librarians vs. Students: Knowledge Management and Information Retrieval

Introduction

There are many kinds of information retrieval tools available on the internet for librarian and patron usage, providing access to thousands of documents worldwide. The internet is composed of numerous interconnected computer networks and has become a powerful tool for information storage, retrieval, and dissemination. Locating specific information within such a vast network may require numerous search techniques, considerable time, and patience — even when the information is ostensibly just a click away. This process may involve visits to numerous websites and careful reading of available content. This lengthy search process can be shortened significantly if the correct vocabulary is used, since there are hundreds of relevant sites available on any given topic.

Many adults, teenagers, children, and students who have not been schooled in search techniques may find themselves overwhelmed, receiving results that are both related and unrelated to their topic of interest. One effective way to address this challenge is through the application of knowledge management. As the name suggests, knowledge management means organizing and controlling the information one encounters when gathering data on a particular subject. In the modern, highly connected world, knowledge management has become an increasingly important practice for any organization seeking to ensure the use of accurate and appropriate information. This is partly because accessibility to information has grown tremendously alongside technological advancements. The key to knowledge management is the ability to distinguish relevant information from irrelevant information in completing a given task.

Furthermore, for knowledge management to be successful within libraries — serving both librarians and students — the environment must be one where all gathered data is accessible and usable by everyone. Since most libraries function as information-sharing centers, this is not difficult to achieve. Librarians can also use the history of stored data on their systems to identify patterns in how students articulate their information needs (Schwarzwalder, 1999).

For this paper, we drew on various past research studies to compare and contrast the differences between skilled and unskilled librarians, as well as high- and low-achieving students, in their overall ability to understand, collect, and manage information relating to a given topic or task. All comparisons were made based on four aspects: (1) meaningful understanding of the task at hand; (2) gathering of relevant and detailed data based on that understanding; (3) ability to remember primary and important facts gathered; and (4) the overall method applied to collect information. Results consistently showed that skilled librarians and high-achieving students were far better equipped to handle all four aspects, individually and collectively, compared to unskilled librarians and low-achieving students.

Information Search and Collection

Moreover, comparisons between librarians and students showed that librarians had a clear overall advantage in the accurate collection and retention of data, owing to the methodologies they employed. The question then becomes whether librarians can effectively teach students the techniques they use to gather information and enable them to exercise the same skills of knowledge management and controlled vocabulary use both inside and outside library environments (Gadzella and Baloglu, 2003).

Many academic psychologists and practitioners have focused on this performance gap between librarians and students in understanding, retrieving, managing, and using gathered information. Some researchers have examined the behaviors, characteristics, mental abilities, and skill sets of both groups in order to analyze the root of these differences. There is a widely held belief among researchers that the differences in success lie in the overall approach to information retrieval and the personal and intellectual foundation behind that approach. Many researchers also believe that the ability to retain facts is highly dependent upon the perceived value or importance of the search (Gadzella and Baloglu, 2003).

The core issue is this: librarians understand the importance of selecting keywords carefully before conducting research on an online or offline database. They filter and choose these keywords not only to save time but to gather information of the highest relevance to the topic being investigated. When students conduct smaller-scale searches, their lack of distinction between important and irrelevant keywords may not present a serious problem. A smaller database contains less information, and with a little time invested, students may eventually find what they need. In a larger database, however, a single irrelevant keyword can redirect a search toward over 100 million irrelevant articles and pages — confusing and overwhelming the student rather than helping them. This is one of the main reasons why librarians, compared to students, are much better at not only gathering relevant information but also managing it so that irrelevant material is filtered out from the outset (Valenza, 1997).

Joyce Valenza, in her research on the importance of accurate online searching, describes the ability to navigate the internet effectively as an "art." She explains that searching online is essentially "a dance between targeting your search precisely enough, but not too narrowly," so as to gather information that is both relevant and broad enough to reflect the full spectrum of the topic (Valenza, 1997). She further explains that the most popular approaches to conducting research today involve either an online search engine or an online directory.

An online directory catalogs relevant studies in the form of a reference list that the user can browse by reading headings or abstracts. The advantage of online directories is that they offer a filtered, concise, yet detailed overview of a topic while also allowing users to redirect their search toward related subjects. Crucially, online directories require only basic information and keywords to conduct a thorough research without demanding mastery of controlled vocabulary. This makes them an accessible starting point for most users, which is why the hurdle of controlled vocabulary is often encountered most acutely when moving on to search engines (Valenza, 1997).

This is precisely why many librarians encourage students to begin their searches using online directories — to gain familiarity with the different ways words and phrases can be used to describe a topic — before attempting to navigate the more demanding environment of search engines. Search engines require a more advanced command of vocabulary in order to filter key terms and gather the most accurate information. They use the computer's processing power and stored vocabulary to conduct searches based on every character or word entered. Typically, search engines display websites or pages with the highest occurrence of the entered characters, usually in groups of 10 to 20 links. Relevance ranking is also influenced by topic appropriateness: a search for "elephants" will not yield the same results as a search for "elephants in Africa" or "animal rights: elephants" (Valenza, 1997).

Importance of Key Words

This distinction must be explained by librarian-teachers to students in the early stages of their online research experience, so that when they tackle a broader topic, they have the ability to break it down and focus on the words and areas most likely to yield relevant information quickly. It is important to note that accurate word selection is itself a part of knowledge management — it requires an individual to organize their existing knowledge about a topic before seeking to expand it through online research.

Many librarians and researchers agree that because controlled vocabulary shapes the structure of knowledge management, students must be taught its accurate use in order to become effective knowledge managers. From this, it follows that good teaching tools for controlled vocabulary will naturally support the development of knowledge management skills and narrow the gap between librarians and students. Despite broad acknowledgment of the importance of appropriate word use among librarians and library systems worldwide, many librarian-teachers still do not invest in the comprehensive teaching of controlled vocabulary searching, whether online or offline. Instead, they focus on the general importance of word choice — how a single word can be the difference between sufficient and insufficient data. This approach is not enough, however, because students still invest more time in collecting information than in filtering, managing, or remembering it, which ultimately leads to lower retention levels (Mann, 2007).

The focus for most librarian-teachers should therefore be on teaching students the importance of variety and flexibility when using controlled vocabulary in search engines, and of drawing on topic-relevant content to search online directories. If librarian-teachers can strike this balance, the overall differences between librarians and students in navigating online and offline databases can be expected to diminish over time. The main task of librarians will thus extend beyond finding and keeping knowledge — they must also become effective knowledge transmitters. To do this successfully, librarians would be better served by teaching the "art" of searching through appropriate keywords and controlled vocabulary, rather than focusing solely on broader data collection and knowledge management procedures (Mann, 2007).

Conclusion

The primary focus of this paper was to highlight the differences between librarians and students in the retrieval and management of information searched through online or offline databases. The importance of knowledge management and controlled vocabulary as the main distinctions underlying the success and failure of such searches was discussed in depth. Suggestions and steps for bridging this gap — enabling students to become better knowledge managers over time — were also addressed. Reference was made to major search engines and web portals such as Google in order to highlight key facts that users should understand before relying on these tools to gather accurate information. Taken together, the evidence reviewed supports the conclusion that structured teaching of controlled vocabulary and knowledge management practices by librarian-teachers is essential to narrowing the performance gap between librarians and students in information retrieval.