Everything is NOT on the DAMN Internet...DAMMIT!
Most librarians, I think, have a love/hate relationship with the magical wonder that is the Internet. Obviously, the Internet can be a wonderful tool for finding information. Librarians know this. Your average Joe knows this. Unfortunately, Average Joe (and Average Jane) also seem to believe that every damn piece of information that anyone could possibly ever want access to can also be found on the internet. I hate to burst their bubble - but IT JUST AIN'T TRUE! To illustrate my point, a woman was requesting a dissertation through interlibrary loan at my library today (not my PERSONAL library - but the one that I work at. Just wanted to be clear about that.) As she was filling out the form for this book that we did not have and was not available on the internet, she casually mentioned how everything else seemed to be on the internet. I just smiled at her. What I really wanted to do was yell "YES, YOU MORON! THAT'S RIGHT! EVERYTHING IS ON THE DAMN INTERNET. EVERYTHING EXCEPT THIS DAMN DISSERTATION THAT YOU NEED! OTHERWISE, IT'S ALL THERE!" What a ridiculous thing to for her to say. Of course, EVERYTHING is not on the internet. If that were the case, libraries would not exist. Neither would book stores. And while this may become a reality someday, I honestly do not think that it will happen anytime while I'm alive. At least I hope not. I've spent too much money on getting my MLS for that to happen!
