About this Column COLLEEN STONE is a producer at MaineToday and guest columnist for our blog in print — a "plog" — that combines comments people make on MaineToday.com with her thoughts about issues. Because many people post to online anonymously, or through the use of monikers, Stone may have to limit her source attributions to first name or screen name. In general, the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram prohibits the use of anonymous sources in its stories. We are making an exception for this unique edited column that links the online world to the print world. If you would like to suggest a story, let us know your idea or question. To top of story

A drink encyclopedia walks into a bar. Bartender asks, "What'll it be?"

"A Manhattan," the encyclopedia says.

"I'm new and I forget what goes in one," the bartender replies. "Let me Google it."

The encyclopedia slaps its head.

OK, so I don't have a future as a "Saturday Night Live" writer. But my bad joke illustrates the changing ways people are gathering information. Research - especially among the younger set - often starts not with a book but with Google and librarians especially have taken notice. (No word on how the trend is affecting drink orders just yet.)

The shift has raised fears among some librarians that as people become more self-directed in their research, librarians as we know them may become obsolete. There's also a concern that the so-called "Google generation" will end up with watered-down work if they pass the librarian and the stacks without stopping on their way to the computer.

People responding to the Portland Press Herald story about the issue at MaineToday.com alternately echoed those fears and urged people to embrace the future. The biggest concern among those lamenting the changing methods is that people relying too heavily on the Internet for research and information gathering aren't getting quality information.

A user named Becky was skeptical that much found online is helpful:

"If you ask any librarian for guidance on a research paper/project, they will strongly discourage the use of Internet search engines. Very little scholarly work of any merit can be found through Google - these types of publications are found in journals and books."

While not every journal or published work essential to complete research lives online, an online search, be it through Google or topic-specific Web sites, can serve as a good jumping-off point. A study published in a 1972 New England Journal of Medicine might not be found online, but there might be a reference to it on a Wikipedia page, for example. A user might then check the text out at the library.

Others worried that a lot of people can't distinguish between good information and bad, fact and fiction on the Internet. Without the library as a gatekeeper, shelving works according to fact and fiction, how will people know whether information they're getting is authentic?

Retired librarian Mary Maschino saw that as a librarian's role:

"Students need to learn the difference between quality research and opinion. A reference librarian can provide direction to the library patron and then encourage him/her to explore independently. If you don't have any basis for judgment of Web information, you are flying blind."

While that may be true for a lot of people, we need to give the generation raised on Google more credit; they're savvier than a lot of people realize when it comes to navigating the Internet and separating the online wheat from the chaff. (And don't discount the chaff, either - sometimes it helps you find the wheat.) That said, educating people in general about how to evaluate information and to consider the source never hurts.

Another user, mainefem, was fed up with what she called neo-Luddites toeing the "You can't trust anything on the Internet" line. She pointed to efforts aimed at getting books and scholarly texts online and the vast amount of useful information that is already accessible with a few clicks of a mouse - whenever and wherever you want it:

". . . Online research is @ the convenience of the end-user; and is not limited via geography, transportation, real time, and/or hours of operation."

For better or worse, the Information Age is also the When I Want It Age. People don't necessarily want to wait until the library opens at 9 a.m. to get cracking or pack up at 8 p.m. when it closes. Is your local library open at midnight?

There was another optimist among the crowd, Jami, who's pursuing a master's degree in library science. She saw the shift in research from hard texts to the Internet not as a death knell for librarians, but as an opportunity - and as a sign that they need to adapt. She thinks the sheer volume of information available on the Internet makes librarians a more essential tool than ever:

"Just because a person can search Google for information about a topic and receive 1,857,530 hits does not mean that they have the tools to organize, analyze, and evaluate the information. This is one of the basic ways in which the library and the librarian serves its user population; it always has been and will continue to be, regardless of the medium in which the information is presented."

Instead of directing people to the right card catalog or instructing them on how the Dewey Decimal System works, for example, librarians might help people refine visitors' online searches to ensure better results.

What's the Dewey Decimal System?

Google it.