Several nights ago I sat at the dining room table with my son to work on the final touches of a science project. He had a packet to fill out which included space to draw graphs and charts of his collected data, research information and a conclusion. There was also a special page dedicated to a bibliography.

He had used several books from the library and I was walking him through the process of the appropriate format for a works cited page. He got frustrated trying to remember which came first, the city of publication or the publishing company.

Next he had an article from the Britannica Online database and I showed him how the citation was already created for him at the bottom of the article. He only needed to copy it down. Finally he put down his pencil and asked, “If it’s already there, why do I have to write it again?”
This won’t be the last time I have to check my tongue and tell him how easy his research will be compared to mine. He won’t want to hear about my early research experiences lugging around the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature or waiting outside in below freezing temperatures for the college library to open so I could get my articles for a paper. And he will never in a million years understand the contraption I used to type those papers.

His research experience has (and probably always will) take place in the comfort and convenience of his home or school computer lab, on his time.

He put his pencil down and waited for an answer.

I paused and bit my tongue because what I really wanted to say sounded dangerously close to something a curmudgeon would say like, “you kids these days have it so easy” and “get off my lawn.” It can’t be easy being a librarian’s kid.

Instead I told him the plainest truth: it matters where your information came from and just because it is convenient and easy to get, you still must cite your source.

My kids may never understand requesting articles and waiting weeks for them to show up, or unfurling miles of microfilm for one mention of a research topic. By today’s comparison it was hard, no doubt.

I feel it is my parental right to tell them how difficult it was to conduct research that way. I will also tell them I walked 10 miles to the library day. Uphill both ways, and in the snow.

Darcy Brixey is the teen services librarian at the Bellevue Library. She’d like to tell you she loves to read, but it’s an expectation of the job.