To Give the Fish or to Teach People How to Fish, by Ivan Chew, Rambling Librarian: Incidental Thoughts of a Singapore Liblogarian, 15 October 2006
I really like what Chew has to say. Here is just some of the article--you should read the whole thing!
"Increasingly we are faced with clients that want the piece of information they want and nothing else.
"We ALL live in an age of "instant gratification" and will continue to do so. Unless Internet Technology collapses, and/ or Google closes down, people will tend to want 'answers now.’
"Even if the customer knows how to fish, they will still want to find cheaper, faster and 'good enough' ways because they'd rather be doing something else.
"We still need to 'teach people how to fish,' but in order to have them want to stay and listen, we must "give them the fish".
"Most library customers these days will search for information on the Internet, and then ask friends or colleagues before they ask librarians (if they do at all). Suppose they approach librarians after that. Instead of getting direct information or answers, they get more instructions, which in their minds could be just more of the same of what they have tried to do earlier."
URL: http://ramblinglibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/10/
to-give-fish-or-to-teach-people-how-to.html
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