Meriam Library News

Image by margolove, used under the Creative commons license. Thanks to Will Richardson for pointing to this image.

In the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan observed that "the medium is the message" -- in other words the communication mechanism from which we receive a piece of information is more than just a dumb conduit. The communication mechanism -- a radio station or a news website, for example -- itself shapes (at least in part) how a person reacts to or thinks about the information s/he receives. Information can be communicated as a sound byte or as a lengthy article, as being scholarly or popular, or as being of critical importance or merely of passing interest. And how the communication mechanism treats a piece of information affects the level of significance a person attaches to that information.

It is with this idea in mind that Nicholas Carr poses the question "Is Google making us stupid?" in The Atlantic. Carr's idea is that the massive volume of information available on the Internet causes people to want the information they receive to be condensed down it its essential elements so they can glean what they want or need to glean and move on to the next topic they want to or need to learn about. Carr says this affects his reading and thinking habits -- instead of immersing himself in a lengthy thought process to consider information and develop his own knowledge, he now wants bare bones information in a rapid fire manner. And he says that other thinkers he knows have experienced the same tendencies to want just the facts before moving on to a new topic.

Certainly information overload has been amplified with the Internet, and many would say with the blogosphere in particular. It has itself been the topic of many an article or blog post, as has the converse desire to get away from a constant flow of information. And information overload is certainly an issue to consider as the Internet continues to integrate into people's daily lives around the world.

But that said, I will challenge Carr on several points in his article. One, he assumes that reducing an intake of information to sound bytes makes a person "stupid" (to borrow his word). I dispute this. Certainly a person can be less informed about an issue if s/he merely gleans sound bytes rather than examining an issue in depth, but whether this lack of immersion leads to "stupidity" is I think an open question -- a question that rests in part on how one defines stupidity, and also on the idea that reliance on sound bytes as sources of information makes a person stupid. While Carr may be correct in connecting sound bytes to stupidity, he never fully addresses this connection. And it is a connection I find open to debate -- depending upon a person's needs or circumstances, perhaps a sound byte is all s/he needs to gain the info s/he wants.

Also, is Google to blame? Why? Is it the fact that Google is the search mechanism of choice for many people? With McLuhan in mind, to what extent is Google responsible for shaping the information a person encounters, and to what extent is it just the delivery mechanism of information that is available on the Internet? Carr gets into these questions, but I found his explanation of why Google should be treated as a main suspect in causing information overload lacking. He seemed to simply assume that, since there is a lot of information on the Internet, and since Google is the main portal to the Internet for many people, Google is thus responsible for overloading people with information. While I don't disagree with this view, I don't see an inherent connection between Google an information overload. It is just one possible connection that rests on how a person accesses the Internet (Google, Yahoo, some other search portal), and how much information s/he takes in from the Internet.

Last but not least, I do think people are frequently able to discern for themselves whether a sound byte's worth of information will be adequate to their needs, or whether they need a more in-depth discussion of an issue. And depending upon what they are looking for, they know to turn to a source that meets their needs -- say for example a newspaper website to quickly get up to speed on the day's events, or a book for an in-depth examination of an issue. Besides Google, people in the CSU, Chico community can and do turn to the Meriam Library's catalog and research guides for targeted, scholarly information. And library use is expanding, not just at Chico State, but throughout the United States generally. The Pew Internet and American Life Project, for example, reports that members of Generation Y turn to their public libraries in greater numbers than any of their preceding generations:

With their libraries as guides, these Gen Y'ers will be well equipped to find information they want or need while avoiding unnecessary info that would only increase information overload.

Contributed by Aaron Bowen

Satrapi, M. (2003). Persepolis. Paris, France: L'Association.

"I think that the language of comics is universal and international. The feelings can be understood by everyone, no matter which culture they are from. A person laughing or crying means the same thing everywhere in the end," Marjane Satrapi tells Quantara, a German website promoting cultural dialogue between Western and Middle Eastern countries. And there is plenty of laughing and crying in her graphic novel Persepolis (available here in the Meriam Library).

Part autobiography and part chronicle of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Satrapi presents the transitions that took place in her life as she grew up in Iran in the late '70s and early '80s. Drawn with a detailed but cartoonish style, she offers a personal account of how the Revolution affected her, such as being made to wear the veil and cover up any interest she had in Western pop culture, and how it affected her family and friends, some of whom were made political prisoners or sent away to avoid being caught up in the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s.

Marjane being interviewed in 2006. Image by GobberGo, used under the Creative Commons license.

As the Quantara article notes,

Satrapi... tells her own story. She does not claim to speak for an entire generation. But the impact of her story is due to the fact that so many Iranians who grew up in Iran in the 70s and 80s can identify with it.

But "Persepolis" has aroused interest and mixed feelings among a readership far wider than just her fellow Iranians. This is because the story is so vivid it allows even outsiders an understanding - if not of the complexity of the events depicted, then at least of the dramatic social and political upheaval in Iran's recent history.

The novel in fact garnered a wide enough audience that it was made into a movie in 2007, with Sean Penn and Catherine Deneuve lending their voices to different characters. Satrapi's original art remains the lens through which the movie characters come to life, as may be seen in the film's posters and stills:

The film has received press in The New York Times and on MSNBC. At the end of the MSNBC article, Satrapi reiterates her goal for both the novel and the movie:

If for one second you can say, "This is a human being just like myself," this is when my goal is reached. ... The use of the humor is something that was very amazing to me. Because to me, humor is the height of understanding. Anywhere in the world we cry for the same reason. We cry because our father is dead, or our mother is sick. We don't laugh for the same reason. If we laugh together, it's as if we've touched each other's spirit. We showed this movie in Japan, and people laugh at the same time as the French do, as the Americans do, as the Swiss, as in Germany. ... It gives me some hope actually.

Contributed by Aaron Bowen

Tomine, A. (2002). Summer Blonde. Montreal, Canada: Drawn and Quarterly.

If you're looking for a comic about superheros fighting bad guys, Summer Blonde isn't for you. But if you would find a collection of stories about real people -- some of whom are less than completely likable but all of whom are complex, three-dimensional, and realistic -- this is a graphic novel you will appreciate. It is available here in the Meriam Library.

Image by brattletheater, used under the Creative Commons license.

Tomine, pictured above, began publishing his stories under the title Optic Nerve at age 16 in Sacramento. His work was soon picked up by Canadian publisher Drawn and Quarterly, which has since periodically re-released some of his work from Optic Nerve, including Summer Blonde.

Tomine's stories are haunting. Members of the 20-something crowd will see pieces of themselves in his drawings. As Andrew Arnold writes in Time,

[Tomine] tells stories that feel more like short exposures of ordinary people's lives, rather than plot-heavy adventures or overt comedy. These stories don't begin and end so much as fade in and out. Tomine explores nuance of character as revealed by life's more typical crises: losing a job, having an annoying neighbor or flirting with someone you shouldn't.

Drawn in black and white with a clear, precise style, Tomine's art underscores the situations in which he puts his characters, from dimly lit street corners to groups of compatriots around glowing TV screens. Through these views, Tomine presents sometimes joyous, sometimes unnerving, and always powerful vignettes from his characters lives.

Contributed by Aaron Bowen

If you have been in the library recently and felt a bit confused and lost, don't worry, it's not you it's us! We are in the process of making some major and minor changes to collection and service locations. All changes will be completed by the start of the fall semester, but if you have misplaced a collection, read on for where you might find it.

Reserve Desk - Reserve has moved in with Circulation and they now share the same office space and service desk.

Nonprint Media - Videos, DVDs, audio-cassettes and software are on the 2nd floor in the Media and Microforms room (formerly known as the Current Periodicals Room)

Current Periodicals Room - The current periodicals (with the exception of the newspapers) are shelved with the Bound Periodicals. Current, unbound issues are shelved at the end of the bound run for the title.

Microforms - Microforms and reader/printers have been moved from the southwest corner of the library into the Media and Microforms room (formerly known as the Current Periodicals Reading Room)

Business Services Tables - The books on the Business Services Tables are now shelved in the Reference Collection.

Student Learning Center - The Student Learning Center has moved to the new Student Services building.