“Web facts erode research”

A Times Online article titled “Web facts erode research” verifies what we already know, that many people don’t know how to judge the authority of web pages and people prefer the “quick fix” of information the web can provide over solid research.  The original article is here, and a paper it was based on is here  The University College London project is called: Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future (’Google Generation).  The executive summary section titled “what are the implications for research libraries?” is especially interesting for research libraries.  Should we be “abandoning any hope of being a one-stop shop” and instead focus on being “gateways”? According to this research, yes.