Organizing information is a job, and one that not necessarily everyone should do. People organize things every day, but since we all do not think in the same way, it may be difficult to find that one piece of information you need if someone else organized it. An article about teenage girls getting free makeovers from a Mary Kay cosmetics representative could be located in many different files; teenagers, cosmetics, makeovers, or possibly Mary Kay, depending on who did the organizing and what their focus point was about the article.
The implications of this for today’s librarians are far reaching. More than ever, the knowledge a librarian possesses about how to organize information in a way that is easily retrievable is a great asset to researchers, students as well as professionals. With the instant access to an overwhelming amount of information available today, many people need a knowledgeable guide in their quest for quality information. The training a librarian receives, as well as the practice in organizing information that is a daily part of the job, makes the librarian the first person most researchers will reach out to for assistance.
The Diigo tags I recently created as part of my SLIS coursework are an example of this concept. The websites tagged had quality information, thanks to what I have learned about evaluating websites, and each were given several tags that will lead others to the information I found to be helpful. While there is a possibility that my thought processes in tagging may not match another researcher’s looking for the same information, I added several tags to each website, which makes the tags helpful to many people, even those who think a little differently than I do!
