By JJ Bowman
News Editor
Technical Services Librarian Patty Richmond uncovered an embarrassing mistake in the Jan. 30 issue of the Graphic. In what might be the paper’s most widely read feature, the “Did You Know?” section, we printed that Afghanistan is the only country that begins with “A” but doesn’t end with “A.”
The fact seemed reasonable to me after running through the litany of countries I know. If Australia, Antarctica, Angola and Argentina met the criteria, how could any other nation not fit the pattern?
Unfortunately, as Richmond wrote in a letter to the editor last week, none of us thought of Azerbaijan, a nation bordering Russia and Iran on the Caspian Sea that has nearly 8 million inhabitants.
Richmond said she found the name of another country that does not follow the “A to A” pattern in a few seconds by searching Encyclopedia Britannica online and then confirmed it by checking the CIA World Factbook. Even more embarrassing to us at the Graphic, she knew exactly why we made the mistake — we read it on the Internet.
Journalists (and anyone else who wants to speak intelligently on a subject) must first get their facts right. Before the story, the commentary and the opinion should come accurate, accountable facts.
Competing with this desire, however, is to get the job done and move on, which makes the Internet an attractive resource.
If the Internet were to crash the evening before a big term paper were due, the majority of students would probably either invent a close relative who died or crawl into the fetal position and sob.
If allotted a bit more time, however, anyone can utilize their librarian, a person most college students consider as valuable as an Azerbaijani manat.
But while a buck will give you close to 5,000 manats, our library can give you the tools for a solid term paper, or in my case, a factually correct newspaper.
For those people weary of using the library in lieu of the Internet, Payson has a means to kick the habit.
At the official Web site, library.pepperdine.edu, students have access to more than 100 databases that offer more valid information than “Freddy’s Fabulous Factoid Site” or any other page providing unsolicited information.
Some of the databases provide access to sites students would otherwise have to pay for. For instance, Encyclopedia Britannica charges $59.95 for a year’s subscription, and the Los Angeles Times requires subscription and charges a fee to anyone who wants to access old articles. Both databases, however, are available through the library’s Web site.
One of the greatest assets of using a librarian is the ability to analyze the value of available data, Richmond said.
“The Internet is in some ways not organized at all,” she said. However, “libraries help evaluate sources of information.”
One main problem with the databases, is that even if students know they exist, few know how to utilize their potential.
Director of Library Services Nancy Kitchen said many students gain an understanding of the databases during freshman seminar as professors will set aside time to teach Payson Library literacy. Students who never received such instruction (or those who have since forgotten) may ask a librarian for one-on-one help.
Perhaps then, it won’t be all Azerbaijani to me.
—Could you place Azerbaijan on a map? E-mail JJ Bowman at jjbowman@pepperdine.edu.
February 13, 2003