columns
There’s a meme making the rounds on the
web (depicted to the right) with a message
about how Google can give you 100,000
answers, but only a librarian will get you
the right one. Despite its snarky slant, the
maxim makes a valid point, one that
resonates with many readers, especially
people desperate for information, may
they be students or researchers.
The following abridged scene from my
novel Poisoned Tears got its inspiration from
the notion displayed in this meme.
Alan Knox typed ‘dead women in the New
Orleans Metropolitan area’ into the search engine
and over a hundred thousand hits appeared on the
screen. That’s the problem with digital news, he
thought. There’s too may websites discussing the
same damn story. Just one murder case could
generate thousands of hits. He narrowed his search
down to within the year. The hits were slightly fewer.
With the resignation of an unwilling toddler put
down to nap, he clicked on and read page after page.
An hour and several keyword combinations later,
frustration settled in.
Geographical availability, that’s the term he
thought of as he approached the librarian.
“I need some help.”
“Yes, sir. How can I assist you?”
“Last night they found that woman in the
park.”
She nodded. Clearly, she had seen the news.
“I’m trying to find out if there have been other
incidents––”
“You think that was intentional and you’re
searching for a pattern,” she interrupted.
“In a word, yes.”
“Come with me.”
www.TopShelfMagazine.net
Libraries, in total understanding of the
current times, have added computers for
people to conduct their searches. However,
the real treasures are kept on the shelves,
organized following a nowadays obscure
code that's akin to an ancient language.
Back in the day, people turned to
libraries to do
research on any
topic. Today, people,
including myself,
make our first stop
in a search engine,
and very often we
find what we need.
My first online
incursions were
during the late ‘90s,
and after enduring
the whistle, scratchy
sounds of dial-up
connections, I would
look for stuff. I have
a soft spot for Yahoo
because it was the
first engine I used. The trivia fans were
thrilled with the interesting bits found in
the Yahoo Daily Pick. Then Google
started to take prominence, and people
even made a verb out of it.
A search engine, just like any artificial
intelligence, doesn’t think per se, but rather
calculates algorithms and presents any and
all of the results matching the given criteria,
namely keywords, whereas a person will
understand the spirit of the question and get
you an appropriate response. The secret to
searches is selecting the keywords that
would yield better results. For detailed
by J. H. Bográn (TopShelf Columnist)
researches, however, you need human
intuition. That’s a trick that A.I. has
not reached yet, the word “yet” being
the operative there.
Perhaps the best explanation can
be found in the 2004 movie I, Robot,
particularly in the scene where Will
Smith’s character tells how a robot
chose to rescue him over a kid after an
accident, and how humans would have
known that even when the kid had a
lower chance of survival, she was worth
saving more than any adult.
In conclusion: These days it’s all
too easy to fall on Google for
information. The reality is, however,
that Google is simply a computer
algorithm designed to help people find
information based on keywords and
search terms. Google cannot decipher
between what’s
absolute fact and
what’s simply fake
news. The internet is
so full of noise and
misinformation that
it’s more likely for us
to get the wrong
information than it is
to find the facts that
we are indeed looking
for. Sure, Google is a
great place to start,
and for some of us, it
may be the only place
we can get to.
However, for those
who seriously need to
know the truth and need to filter out all the
noise and often intentional falsehoods, the
library is still where it’s at.
IN THE AGE OF GOOGLE,
THE LIBRARY IS STILL
WHERE IT’S AT
He followed her to an aisle behind the
computers. Large folders safeguarded newspaper
editions. She pulled out one of the hefty tomes and
placed it on top of the table. Alan glanced at the date
range; it was from two weeks before.
The woman kept turning pages, with the care of
handling something precious. About halfway through
the tome, she found what she was looking for. Alan
looked down and read the headline. The more he read
the article, the more the hair on the back of his neck
rose. Two are a coincidence; three are a pattern. The
librarian had just helped him confirm his theory.
COLUMNS
J. H. Bográn, born and raised in Honduras, is
the son of a journalist; however, he ironically prefers
to write fiction. José’s genre of choice is thrillers, but
he enjoys to throw in a twist of romance on occasion.
He has published three acclaimed novels and is a
member of The Crime Writers Association, the
Short Fiction Writers Guild, and the International
Thriller Writers where he also serves as the Thriller
Roundtable Coordinator and contributor editor for
their official e-zine The Big Thrill.
TOPShelf magazine
APRIL2017 11