Libri, 2006, vol. 56, pp.

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ISSN 0024-2667

The Google Effect:

Googling, Blogging, Wikis and the
Flattening of Expertise
TARA BRABAZON
Media School of Computing, Mathematics and Information Sciences, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK

This article presents the consequences to librarians and nality of information – there has always been a plurality of
teachers for the flattening of expertise, or the Google Effect. sources in the analogue environment. The concern is the
As blogs continue to fill the Web with the bizarre daily ritu- lack of literacy skills and strategies to sort the trash from
als and opinions of people who we would never bother the relevant. This paper addresses not only the social
speaking to at a party, let alone invite into our homes, there choices about computer use and information literacy, but
has never been a greater need to stress the importance of in- the intellectual choices we make in our professional lives
telligence, education, credentials and credibility. The prob- as teachers and librarians. In such a time, the Google Effect
lem is not only accuracy, but also the mediocrity initiated raises stark questions about the value of reading, research,
through the Google Effect. The concern is not with the ba- writing and scholarship.

With the public sector, education, the welfare state – all the transformation of Web documents. The readers
big, ‘safe’ institutions – up against the wall, there’s nothing of websites became the writers of websites. Since
good or clever or heroic about going under. When all is
said and done, why bother to think ‘deeply’ when you’re
the wiki-reconstruction of the initial refereed and
not being paid to think deeply? scholarly project in January 2001, Wikipedia now
includes over one million articles in English, mak-
Dick Hebdige (1988, 167) ing it ten times larger than Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica.
Face it: You’re always just a breath away from a job in
telemarketing.
I summon Wales in this article to note the Jonah
within. While Time Magazine celebrated him as “a
Douglas Coupland (1996, 17) champion of Internet-enabled egalitarianism,” he
preferred another descriptor: “anticredentialist”
Democracy and expertise (Anderson 2006). This is a significant and densely
disturbing distinction. [2] While many of us are
In the Time Magazine of May 8, 2006, Jimmy Wales old enough to remember the techno-enthusiasms
was listed among the one hundred people “who of Sherry Turkle (1995) and Howard Rheingold
shape our world” (Anderson 2006). A former op- (1993), and the sense that analogue inequalities
tions trader, in 1999 Wales started an online and would melt away as cyberspace morphed institu-
free encyclopaedia termed Nupedia. He com- tions into The Well (Hafner 1997), there has been a
menced by commissioning scholarly, refereed ar- damaging twist to the utopian trust placed in the
ticles. After eighteen months of this rigorous digitizing community. There is confusion in dig-
process, he had twelve entries. [1] To correct this ital discourse between affirmations of democracy
lack of expertise, Wales utilized wiki, a software and a denial and destruction of expertise. Wales
programme that enables the quick and trackable has ridden that confusion. Now, as one of Time’s
Tara Brabazon is Professor of Media Studies in the School of Computing, Mathematics and Information Sciences at the University
of Brighton and Director of the Popular Culture Collective. School of CMIS, University of Brighton, Room 610 Watts Building,
Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4SG, England. E-mail: [email protected]

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‘100 People Who Shape Our World,’ his anti-ex- people who we would never bother speaking to at
pertise agenda no longer requires the mask of a party, let alone invite into our homes, there has
egalitarianism or digital democracy. While called never been a greater need to stress the importance
“peer production,” it is really peer-less produc- of intelligence, education, credentials and credibili-
tion, where mediocre, banal and often irrelevant ty. Learning requires pedagogical strategies to be
facts are given an emphasis and interpretation effective. Teaching requires expertise in not only
which extends beyond the credibility of scholarly content but context. Librarians require dynamic,
literature. [3] The ideology of Wikipedia assumes contemporary strategies for not only creating an
that if more people are involved in the process information scaffold, but also affirming the di-
of writing entries, then their accuracy will in- verse values and forms of information.
crease. Popularity and participation inevitably The problem is not only accuracy, but also the
determines truth. This justification of mediocrity mediocrity initiated through the Google Effect.
through popularity is part of what I call the Goo- The concern is not with the banality of informa-
gle Effect, the notion that the popularity of ‘hits’ tion – there has always been a plurality of sources
determines the relevance of the results. Ironically in the analogue environment. The concern is the
the assumption that collaboration must inevitably lack of literacy skills and strategies to sort the
result in progress and improvement in the quali- trash from the relevant. This paper therefore ad-
ty of information has been described by Wikipedia dresses not only the social choices about computer
editors as a “social Darwinian evolutionary pro- use and information literacy, but also the intellec-
cess” (Svoboda n.d.). The notion that Social Dar- tual choices we make in our professional lives
winism can be cited as a political justification of as teachers and librarians. Lew Zipin and Marie
digital selection without awareness of its histori- Brennan, in evaluating the contemporary Austral-
cal passage through colonialism, Eugenics and ian university sector, believed that “professional
fascism merely confirms the necessity for referee- identity crises – with deeply ethical implications –
ing and accredited peer review. are brewing” (2003, 351).
Jimmy Wales has a reason to deny credentials. The disrespect of those who work in education
He is using Wikipedia to rewrite his own history. in Australia is – depending on the perspective – ei-
He frequently edits his own biography, removing ther caused, enhanced, framed or facilitated by a
references to Larry Sanger, the co-creator of Wiki- forty percent decline in operating budgets for uni-
pedia. Up until December 2, 2005, Wales had ‘peer versities since 1996, with the attendant necessity
produced’ – or edited – his own biography on to generate alternative income streams. University
Wikipedia eighteen times (Cadenhead n.d.). He researchers must now market, sell, commodify
altered the description of a pornographic website and simplify their expertise. During the same pe-
that was one of his earlier publishing enterprises. riod, student numbers increased by thirty percent,
When editors tried to reinstate the phrase “soft- while teaching-only staff were reduced by eight
core pornography” to describe an earlier busi- percent and teaching/research staff reduced by
ness venture, Wales confirmed that “the correct one percent (Nelson 2003). Such an environment
terminology is adult content … I do not think we confirms not only a political disrespect for the
should adopt the definitions of the Taliban” (Ca- sector, but a changing set of social goals where
denhead n.d.). This manner of ‘correction’ has a a large number of students must be taught by
name in literature: vanity publishing. The notion much fewer staff. In such a time, the Google Effect
that one man has claimed both the credibility and raises stark questions about the value of reading,
integrity of bringing democratic information to research, writing and scholarship.
‘the people’ while using the wiki editing function
to rewrite his own history, needs to be discussed
Proliferation of Google
with care, research and – unfortunately for him –
credentialed expertise. Google, and its naturalized mode of searching, en-
This article presents the consequences to librar- courages bad behaviour. When confronted by an
ians and teachers of the flattening of expertise, or open search engine, most of us will enact the ul-
the Google Effect. As blogs continue to fill the timate of vain acts: inserting our own name into
Web with the bizarre daily rituals and opinions of the blinking cursor. Googling is a self-absorbed

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 The Google Effect: Googling, Blogging, Wikis and the Flattening of Expertise

action, rather than an outward and reflexive proc- sites and is increasingly corporatized. It seems ap-
ess. It is not a search of the World Wide Web, but propriate that Google is ubiquitous at the moment
the construction of an Individual Narrow Portal. when teachers and librarians are overworked and
A persona is constructed and summoned through less available to see students. David Loertscher
Google that is not a neutral avatar, but configures confirmed that,
a self on the basis of popularity. It is addictively
riveting to see how an identity is constructed Search engines such as Google are so easy and immediate
that many young people, faced with a research assign-
through Google. For example, Paul Morley, one ment, just ‘Google’ their way through the internet rather
of the most iconoclastic and talented of popular than struggle through the hoops of a more traditional
cultural writers, put his own name into the blink- library environment (2003, 14).
ing cursor.
There are consequences for the proliferation of
I decided to … punch my name into the Google search Google. There is also a reason for the limited vista
engine to see how I have been gathered, collected, framed,
defined on the World Wide Web. Who am I on the net? of this virtual landscape. Google is a business
I figured that this would be a pretty good description and a brand. [5] Larry Page, one of the founders
of who I was, or who I have been. It would be accurate, of Google along with Sergey Brin, developed the
neutral, and would sum up my achievements inside the technology while a doctoral candidate in engineer-
media, as a writer, as a personality, as some kind of opera-
ing at Stanford University. [6] The word Google
tor in arts and entertainments. The Google search engine
raked in versions of myself from across the virtual uni- is derived from the mathematical term googol, a
verse, and from the results you could piece together a ver- one followed by 100 zeros. This etymology is im-
sion of me that is as good a biography as anything. What portant, as founding ideologies invariably frame
you could see straight away, from the very first mentions, the meaning of structures in the long term. The
is that I did become famous as a rock-and-roll writer of all
cultural orientation of the search engine was engi-
time. I say this, without believing it, while knowing it to be
fairly true, and would say that, on various occasions, dur- neering and mathematics, not education, library,
ing the late seventies and early eighties, while writing for Internet or media studies. The aim of Page’s initial
the New Musical Express, I did materialize now and then study at Stanford was to understand ‘back link-
as the greatest but overall, in the lists of greats, I would ing,’ or the ‘BackRub project’ as he termed it. His
just about put myself inside the top twenty. Well, inside
goal – modelled on scholarly citation practices
the top ten. About seventh. Or sixth. All in all, I think I was
the fifth-greatest rock-and-roll writer of all time. Maybe and ‘impact’ measurements – was to find a way
the fourth. Actually, the third. The greatest non-American, to count the number of back links on the World
anyway. And I could take on the top two Americans any Wide Web. PageRank was the algorithm created
day of the week (2003, 118). that recognized and measured the number of links
into a particular site, and the number of links into
Morley shows how the ‘objective’ ranking can these other sites. This equation determined the
slide into subjective meanderings of social worth. order of the Google returns. Alta Vista and Excite
These rankings and returned hits have an addic- ranked on keywords: Google initially searched the
tive quality. Particularly with the proliferation words in titles, then developed full-text searches.
of blogs – and the ambiguous application of libel Frequent upgrades, updates and improvements
laws in this environment – bizarre opinions from have emerged since the initial release. There is
one person can be granted an unnecessary impor- now a suite of Google products, including the im-
tance. Googling provides the platform for the sub- age search and Froogle – a virtual shopping mall.
tle but continual weathering of the credentials and The key to understanding the Google Effect is to
expertise of information professionals. The search grasp the consequences of PageRank, which is an
has replaced research. The assumption is that once ‘objective’ measurement of the importance of Web
the hits have been returned for the user, that they pages by assessing the number of links that point
also hold the interpretative skills to manage the to them. As Russell Brown described,
results. [4]
It is important to be completely honest about Google embodied a simple, brilliant idea. It was, effective-
ly, to ask us what we thought was important. If a website
the Internet – let alone the Web – that is being had many links to it, or its key people were name checked
searched by Google. The Web is large, occasionally elsewhere, it was considered to be a trusted part of a com-
irrelevant, filled with advertising, outdated ghost munity, and its ranking reflected that. In doing a Google

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Tara Brabazon

search, we could draw on the knowledge, experience and edit it. This ‘anyone’ refers to the Web literate with
good taste of everyone else (2005). time on their hands. The famous example of these
concerns with quality control was the entry on the
The confusion between popularity and quality British pop star ‘Jamie Kane.’ Actually Kane was
emerges at this point. While there may be a rela- fictional, a character in an online game launched
tionship between the number of back links and by the BBC. A staff member of the organization
importance, it must not be assumed. Ponder the had added the entry with the goal of viral market-
serious consequences when students click onto ing. When it was realized, the entry was corrected,
highly ideological sites that are assessed by pop- but the original was not deleted (Brown n.d.).
ularity, not qualitative importance or significance. That these banal blogs and resurfaced wiki en-
There are many ways a ranking could be assem- tries are returned through Google is not a scholarly
bled, particularly with intervention by librarians barrier if re/searchers recognize that they are the
and information managers. The assumption of words of one person and require interpretation,
Google is that the popularity of sites is a valida- contextualization and further citations. Without
tion of quality. This is an incorrect premise. For understanding the importance of this analytical
example, bloggers link to each other’s blog. A few matrix, a blogger’s views, or the interpretation of
people can manufacture high Google returns by an active wiki editor, could be granted as much
simply linking between their Web logs. value as a scholar’s refereed research. Certainly,
there are advantages in this user-driven content.
For example, when David Lange, former Prime
Speed or accuracy?
Minister of Aotearoa/New Zealand, died, Russell
Blogs are – at their most overt – one person (over)- Brown revealed that there was no online biogra-
valuing the minutia of their day. As a diary for phy of him on Te Ara, the Encyclopaedia of New
public circulation, they make the writer feel im- Zealand Online, the Dictionary of New Zealand
portant and published, without going through the Biography or the online Encyclopaedia Britannica. It
processes of refereeing, editing and proofing. They was Wikipedia that had the main entry for David
can also be – and frequently are – subjective com- Lange, and reported his death two hours after the
mentaries untempered by argument, research or public announcement (Brown n.d.). The issue is
analysis. Most bloggers demonstrate the self-con- whether librarians and teachers are prepared to
fidence of Dr Phil on steroids. Blogs are available trade speed for accuracy.
so that the (over) Web-confident can confirm their
importance. Google then measures the popularity
Flattening of expertise
of these words. In anti-intellectual times, the lack
of rigour, citation or scholarly protocols is framed The Internet, Web, Google, blogs and wikis as
as an advantage and strength, not an excuse for an artefact, program, medium or matrix, are not
mediocrity. For example Meg Hourihan stated the cause of ignorance, mediocrity or conformity.
that, What is a concern is the rise of these media sites
and applications when teachers and librarians are
What’s important is that we’ve embraced a medium free of demeaned and discredited. The information age
the physical limitations of pages, intrusions of editors, and
delays of tedious publishing systems. As with free speech requires information management. Unease occurs
itself, what we ask isn’t as important as the system that because the proliferation of sources has emerged
enables us to say it (2002). at the very moment when the credibility of librar-
ians and teachers has declined. For example, in
The ‘tedious delays’ are the basis of quality as- 2003, the Expanded Academic Database, one of
surance mechanisms. The refereeing and review- the most important full-text databases for edu-
ing takes time, but also ensures the calibre of cation and the humanities in particular, featured
writing and research. Blogs are free from such a link to Google at the top of every search page.
‘constraints.’ That is a problem, not a strength. This process still does not occur the other way:
The concerns with the Google Effect of blogs are Google encouraging movement into more spe-
perpetuated and enhanced through Wikipedia. It cialized databases. Without the help of such soft-
is a ‘free’ encyclopaedia that allows ‘anyone’ to ware prompts, teachers and librarians must take

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 The Google Effect: Googling, Blogging, Wikis and the Flattening of Expertise

responsibility for the shift into refereed research, articles. To prepare for assignments and the week-
stressing that Google is the start – not the entirety – ly tutorials, they simply had to read the materials
of a search. There are major consequences to our that were purchased, prepared and photocopied
students, their future and our educational system for them. No further ‘searching’ was required. Yet
if we are apathetic rather than pro-active in the the students fought this – too low – minimum.
building of an information scaffold, rather than
allowing a search engine to define the parameters From: Sam
Sent: Friday, 24 March 2006 5:11 PM
of effective research. Instead, through the prolif- To: Tara Brabazon
erations of blogs and wikipedia, a large quantity Subject: RE: Creative Industries HELP!
of low quality material has emerged, untempered
by equivalent attention to literacy and interpretive Hi Tara
Sorry to be painful but this should be my last question. Do
skills. we really need to have ten references from the readers?
At schools and universities, we are starting to It’s just that by coincidence (my parents bought me a
see the consequences of a flattening of expertise. subscription to Time) I have found a couple of articles,
Students commence my first year course demon- one regarding obesity in America and one about everyday
people creating wealth through the internet (with blogs,
strating superficial research and comprehension short films etc). I’d like to use these but I feel that I am
skills and awkward writing modalities. They do getting too wound up on having ten references from the
not seek out diverse views to construct an argu- unit material,
ment. Rather, they presume that if they find text
Have a good weekend
on a screen, returned through the first ten Google
hits, then it must be correct and relevant. Mak- Sam
ing students think, rather than assume, and read
rather than cut and paste is proving a challenge. I From: Tara Brabazon
am now setting minimum – and indeed minimal – Sent: Saturday, 25 March 2006 7:40 AM
To: Sam
standards for the number of scholarly references Subject: RE: Creative Industries HELP!
to be consulted and cited in university essays. My
days are spent enforcing and lifting both the level Hi Sam -
and scale of reading.
Hope you are well. Thanks for your message.

From: Elizabeth Sam – the assignments in creative industries – they have

Sent: Wednesday, 12 April 2006 10:43 AM been written to use that reading. We do not want any further
To: Tara Brabazon reading at all. And remember there are many more articles
Subject: assignment than 10 in these relevant sections of the course, so students
can choose what suits them. But they must choose from the
Hey Tara quality material that we have gathered from around the
world. That is the relevant stuff. That is what we are testing
I know this is last- minute but unfortunately I’m a last is being used.
minute girl. I need help with my assignment. I’m getting
confused with the topic and I can’t seem to find good The reason that we want these references is to confirm that
references, or enough references for the topic. When are students have done the reading and are working at a level
your consulting hours? Because I desperately need help. where they can interpret that material.

Love Liz So Time magazine is not at a high enough level for University
work. It’s interesting and great to read, but we are asking
a precise question, using a precise body of knowledge.
This email was sent five hours before an assign- Remember too, the quotes may be four or five words in
length, that’s all. But you need to confirm that you can read
ment was due to be submitted. She was troubled and use them.
that I demanded that students deploy at least
ten references from their ‘Reader.’ At Murdoch Also – one of the criteria by which we’re assessing your
University, we gave all our students a collection work is the use of reading. So you need to position yourself
to get the marks from that part of the marking mix, O.K?
of readings from the most relevant and current
sources. No Web materials were required for these Let me know if I can do anything else...
assignments, as I had already assembled an exten-
sive collection of digital and analogue scholarly T

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Yes, a student is complaining about the use of Access was not Eric’s problem. Motivation was
ten references in a university-level assignment, the key to his behaviour. I have an even more dis-
from readings that had already been provided for astrous example of how the systematic disregard
him. Thirty-eight separate extracts for students and disrespect of education, reading, writing and
to use were presented to students in the first six thinking has facilitated disrespectful behaviour
weeks of the course. Asking students to select from students.
ten from this list is neither excessive nor inflated.
Obviously many more references were required From: Bernie
for a distinction grade. It is startling that by plac- Sent: Friday, 12 May 2006 3:34 AM
To: Tara Brabazon
ing a (quite low) minimum level of compliance, Subject: MCC106
students still had difficulty reaching this figure.
Fascinatingly, Sam attempted to argue that Time My name is Bernie and I am enrolled in MCC106. You
would not know me, as even though I am enrolled I have
would be an adequate substitute for the care-
not been coming to uni at all this semester. I have not
fully selected international scholarship. This is the submitted any work that has been due as honestly I had
Google Effect. For this student to think that Time lost interest in university after some events that transpired
is equivalent to higher levels of scholarship is part in recent times in my life made it seem irrelevant. However,
I now realise this has been a big mistake and I really want
of the intellectual flattening of expertise that needs to complete this unit and therefore my course at the end of
to be corrected and addressed. We need to teach this year. I am very interested in completing this unit even
– overtly – the meaning and purpose of referee- though it is for credit points towards graduation. Is there
ing. Content and context must be aligned. Further, any way that something can be worked out so I do not fail
this unit?
we must ensure that these tools are actually used,
rather than taught and ignored. I am eager to come in and see you at any time to discuss
Actually, content is not the key. Context is the this [I am unavailable tomorrow Friday 12th due to work],
imperative. Only when technology has a social which I think is the best thing to do. I just hope I have not
left it too late.
purpose and appropriate context is it useful. It
must be embedded in social practices and daily Can you please get back to me and advise me of anything
life so that it ‘disappears.’ Internet literacy is not that can be done?
inevitable, triggered by the availability of hard-
Regards,
ware, software or the Google prompt. Questions Bernie
of motivation and context, rather than access and
content, are necessary. As educators, it is our first
job to teach students why education is important, This email was sent in week ten of the semester.
and why learning must be respected. Two assignments had already been submitted and
returned. Ten tutorials and lectures had been de-
From: Eric livered. What do we – as workers in education – do
Sent: Wednesday, 27 July 2005 9:24 AM with such an email? I obviously replied and – yes –
To: Tara Brabazon
Subject: COM102 I gave him a chance to complete the semester’s
work. Then, the following Sunday night before
Hi, I enrolled in COM102 but I wasn’t able to make it to the the next week’s lecture and tutorial, he informed
first lecture.
me that he was unwell and would not make it to
I was just wondering how I should go about signing up for
a tutorial or anything else important I missed. the eleventh week of teaching. After sending three
Thanks more follow up emails, without a reply, I realized
that I was merely perpetuating the disrespect of
Eric
universities, academics, reading and writing by
chasing him and giving him a chance. An op-
Before Eric sent this email, he had three months portunity for learning is not what he required. He
holiday between semesters. The tutorial lists were deserved to fail. He did fail. What is significant is
outside my door for the month preceding the first that – before email access to teachers and librar-
lecture. They were still there when this young ians – Bernie would have had to make an inde-
man sent his email. The ‘anything else important pendent decision, rather than involving us in his
I missed’ clearly did not include the lecture itself. messy life and fuzzy choices. The results gained

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from increasing access to the digital environment 3. What evidence is used? Are there citations in the
cannot be guaranteed in advance. It is the start of piece?
learning, not the end. 4. What genre is the document: journalism, academic pa-
per, blog, polemic?
5. Is the site/document/report funded by an institution?
Assessing the quality of information 6. What argument is being made?
Google has increased the accessibility of not on- 7. When was the text produced?
ly library and teaching staff, but an array of Web 8. Why did this information emerge at this point in his-
tory?
sites, transforming the landscape of digital in-
9. Who is the audience for this information?
formation into a manageable formation. It also en-
courages sound bite solutions that are not re- 10. What is not being discussed and what are the political
consequences of that absence?
searched or theorized. [7] Google makes searching
for information easier, but it is also demeaning of
the scholarship involved in well-theorized inter- Asking students to answer these questions is a
pretation and scholarship. [8] More information way to limit the free range of searching on the Inter-
does not – intrinsically – create more effective and net and the unquestioning acceptance of the Goo-
convincing research. gle ranking. They must pause, reflect and think.
The Internet is not a library. Google is not a li- These questions create the recognition that finding
brary catalogue. These are dangerous metaphors. information is not synonymous with understand-
The characteristic of a library – the organization ing information. Without such critical pauses, the
of knowledge into preservable categories – has inclusion of the Internet into the school and uni-
left few traces on the Internet. A catalogue of ac- versity curriculum may ensure access to informa-
cessible holdings is not a collection of numbers, tion, but it does not promote the development of
but a sequence of ideas. This ordering is not an high quality writing, wide reading and innovative
archaic relic of the analogue age, but holds a social interpretations. Importantly, Google’s popularity
function: to allow users to search and assess infor- does not facilitate or encourage the discipline and
mation and build larger relationships to broader structure that many of our students require. The
subjects, theories and ideas. While the Web may difficulty is that information – through Google – is
appear to remove the physicality of information, seen to be both abundant and cheap. Because of
we are yet to make this leap conceptually. Words this rapid ranking and return, ‘anyone’ can man-
like flexibility and interactivity displace a discus- age it. Actually, the abilities required to assess
sion of educational motivation. The digital library information are difficult and costly to obtain.
is determined as much by research training, data-
base instruction, computer support and document
A path through information
delivery as the availability of search engines. In-
formation literacy integrates documents, media, An early techno-celebrationist welcomed the Web
form, content, literacy and learning. The expertise in education, believing that “we can learn virtu-
of librarians and teachers must – overtly rather ally anything from the very source of the informa-
than implicitly – support new modes of reading, tion” (‘Applications of learning’ 2001). Everything
writing and communicating, integrating and con- can be learnt from the Web, except how to use it.
necting discovery, searches, navigation and the What is significant, as Wikipedia and blogging
appropriateness of diverse resources. continue these anti-credentializing imperatives, is
Our first lessons in schools and universities that Google itself is transforming. It now has ser-
must teach and re-teach how to evaluate the qual- vices for librarians, Google Librarian Center, and
ity of all information, including Internet-based has splintered its product and brand to recognize
data. I encourage students to ask ten pivotal ques- the differentiation between non-refereed and aca-
tions as they approach any text, and attempt to demic work. The arrival of Google Scholar in 2004
build an interpretative matrix from it. was a welcome intervention that assists students,
teachers and librarians in explaining and deploy-
1. Who authored the information? ing the different modes of information. This
2. What expertise does the writer have to comment? service will be increasingly significant as online,

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refereed journals increase in number and quality, search engine is becoming a post-Fordist sifter
and their cataloguing becomes more methodical. and sorter of text. There is also an outreach project
The difficulty with Google Scholar, which is not a to the profession through Google Librarian. Yet as
problem caused by the company but by the com- Google is attempting to correct the flattening of
modification of information, is that international expertise and information, Wikis and blogs are
publishers have controlled the distribution of jour- flooding cursors with opinionated, individual-
nal articles so that University and public librar- ized, unreferenced verbiage. This problem is in-
ies must buy the rights of access. This means that creasing in frequency.
Google Scholar can list these journal articles by Students require time, care, energy and good
title but the full text script is not available. It is a assessment to improve their digital academic re-
great intervention from Google to recognize that search. Teachers necessitate professional develop-
there are different types of information which ment in library studies, Internet studies and liter-
require distinct modes of search engine. The chal- ary theory to create a worthwhile intellectual jour-
lenge is to ensure that the online and electronic ney through this new research landscape. Most
journals submitted to their database are from importantly universities must value their libraries
around the world and in diverse languages. In its and librarians. As Cerise Oberman has argued,
early incarnation, publishers from the United
States and United Kingdom dominated the ranks For thirty years, librarians have been responding to the
electronic age: we have forecast the paperless society, ru-
of refereed articles. Actually – to avoid the com- minated about libraries without walls, and pondered the
mercial aggregators – Google Scholar administra- impact of an increasingly digital world (1996).
tors can seek out the freely available refereed jour-
nals produced by academics and universities,
available online and without cost. Much of this We need to find structural ways to push our
material is produced outside of the United States students back into libraries to discover the value
and the United Kingdom, bringing ‘the world’ of wandering up the corridors of monographs and
back to the World Wide Web. This indexing re- journal stacks. Also, with library budgets declin-
quires expertise from librarians to validate but ing, we need to remember and value the knowl-
captures the texture and depth of the online en- edge, professionalism and training of librarians.
vironment. Importantly, this range of material is Librarians do not provide information, but a path
starting to emerge through Scholar. through information.
While the quality of retrieved online informa- Digital wallpaper has covered over the cracks of
tion is improved through Google Scholar, another analogue injustice. While Googlers, bloggers and
‘product,’ Google Print – that became Google Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales affirm the democracy
Book Search – has a more archival function. being woven from their desks, it is necessary to
remove the digital burka and see those who are
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information, working in the adjacent analogue environment.
but much of that information isn’t yet online. Google Print
aims to get it there by putting book content where you can When times are truly bad, we are drawn to the
find it most easily – right in your Google search results light, the frivolous and the stupid. This phenome-
(‘About Google Print’). non – which could be called the Paris Hilton Effect –
is facilitated by Google, bloggers and Wikipedia,
The monograph content in Google Book Search where bored surfers fill their cursors and minds
is sourced from publishers and libraries. The with irrelevancies. We lose the capacity to sift,
entirety of public domain books can be viewed, discard and judge. Google is white bread for the
but only a few pages from copyrighted material. mind; creating pleasant, tasty searches with little
While the availability of research material is un- nutritional content. Information is no longer for
even, Google is enacting a public (and commer- social good, but for sale.
cial) service, and the results will be impressive in
the longer term. Meanwhile, students continue to
Making students read and think
use Google, rather than the more complex services
of Book Search and Scholar. However a potential My final teaching story demonstrates the conse-
for growth and intervention is there. The Fordist quence of this Google Effect on our students and

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 The Google Effect: Googling, Blogging, Wikis and the Flattening of Expertise

their future. The great gift of education, to read represent an eighteen-year-old first-year universi-
widely and interpretatively, instils the ability not ty student. They could select any identity in the
only to make innovative connections between aca- world, and they wanted to represent themselves.
demic disciplines, but seemingly disparate ideas. This odd subsection of the student cohort used
The best scholarship encourages creativity and little or no reading and replaced research with
imagination. In a 2006 assignment, I asked my first personal opinion. There are four separate inter-
year students to complete a policy submission, pretations of this decision to ‘be themselves’ when
responding to a Creative Industries document they had an opportunity to assemble a distinct
from any social position. They could ‘be’ a fashion identity from which to configure not only a po-
designer, musician, DJ, librarian, sportsperson or litical position, but a scholarly argument. Firstly,
tourist operator. Their choices were only limited they showed a lack of imagination. They had no
by their imagination. The readings were wide- aspiration or creativity to construct an innovative
ranging and diverse, supporting most identities identity from which to speak. Secondly, they dem-
students could assume. onstrated a lack of confidence. As they had not
read widely through their prior scholastic lives,
2. Policy Submission when they were confronted by refereed academic
writing, they were unable to cope. They lacked the
You have been given the task of writing a policy sub-
mission to the Premier of Western Australia. You must literacy skills to read and interpret higher-level
assess the Creative WA document and recommend whether work. Thirdly – and in a damaging combination
or not Western Australia is an appropriate site for the with an absence of imagination and confidence –
development of creative industries policies and initiatives.
the students were self-absorbed. Because they had
Remember: assume a position and argue your case, using
the materials in the Reader to provide the evidence to completed little research and reading through the
verify your case. course, the only topic they knew was themselves.
Blogs and wikis have successfully validated the
Due Date: End of week twelve (May 26, 2006)
Weighting: 40% of the course
views of individuals as intrinsically being valu-
Length: 2000–2500 words able. Students are now repeating this ideology in
formal education, with staff having to explain and
Evaluative Criteria justify the importance of reading the words and
• Capacity to evaluate the core document.
understanding the life worlds of others. Finally,
• Exhibition of wide-ranging reading from the course,
demonstrating correct referencing. they are inexperienced in managing and negotiat-
• Effective writing, style, structure and tone. Please ing diverse views to construct an argument. The
note: no singular presentation style is required for this notion that more is demanded of them than sim-
document. Choose a structure to suit your argument. ply their opinion is not within their vista.
• Level of interpretation and analysis
This was my experiment for one semester: take
Google away from student and see what emerges.
The most widely read students assumed the Most students – although initially flustered and
most creative advocate role and produced the confused – did begin to deploy scholarly material
most effective assignments. Surprises emerged again. Their literacy skills improved, and they
through this assessment, as is common through (re)learnt how to reference and construct a schol-
all curricula change. Fashion models and bass arly analysis. But for about ten percent of my stu-
players in cover bands argued their case along- dents, they had no resources to understand what
side a public relations consultant for the Western to do when Google, blogs and wikis were re-
Australian Cricket Association and a bar manager moved from them.
of a suburban pub. There was some great work The problem is not – and never has been Google.
produced. But the surprise – indeed shock – of the The problem is that a Google Effect has flattened
assignment confirmed the impact of the Google expertise and saturated inexperienced students
Effect which is just emerging in our universities with low-grade information, with little time spent
after this generation of students have ’Googled’ actually teaching the difference between refereed
their way through high school. and unrefereed material, and how to rank, evalu-
Ten percent of the class chose a position I was ate and use this information within a scholarly
not expecting. They chose to be themselves, to environment. Perhaps only when teaching and

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Tara Brabazon

referencing without Google, at least for a semes- dency, credibility has been difficult to re-assemble
ter, can the complexity and intricacies of research because of the media environment. He realized that
be returned to searching. the perceived decline in credibility has “surprising-
ly little to do with a simple lack of potentially great
leaders, and much to do with a politician’s ability
to behave like, and therefore be perceived as, the
Notes traditional ‘great leader,’” from No sense of place,
1. Significantly, Jimmy Wales has rewritten this fail- (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), p. 269.
ure, not in terms of a lack of expertise to write peer- With the public seeing too much of its politicians,
reviewed material, but because it was a ‘top down the image of an untarnished great leader is difficult
model.’ He states, “about two years before I found- to create.
ed Wikipedia I had founded another project called 8. Kathy Schrock has constructed a solid checklist
Nupedia. It was based upon the same concept as to assess the quality of information, including the
Wikipedia, which was that it was a freely licensed authority of the author, bias, citation rates, dates
encyclopaedia that was written by volunteers. Un- published, efficiency, the positioning of informa-
fortunately, we didn’t use the Wiki software and tion in context, disability access and information
it was a very top down model, which ultimately availability (1999–2000).
wasn’t very successful,” from “Jimmy Wales, CEO
of Wikipedia,” nPost.com, interview with N. Kaiser,
November 1, 2005, URL: http://www.npost.com/
References
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Editorial history:
paper received 11 June 2006;
final version received 15 July 2006;
accepted 28 July 2006.

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