I encountered this discussion over at Inside Higher Education and it got me thinking the about ambiguity that I frequently find in the library instruction classroom. I think that the tension that Einsinger explores is one that is particularly pronounced for library instructors. On one hand, it is vitally important that students develop the basic ability to use library resources. After all, if a student cannot use the library catalog they are unlikely to have much success finding that book they need for their research paper. However, I think that librarians are uniquely susceptible to trying to obscure ambiguity. We are concerned with distinguishing from the “scholarly” and the “non-scholarly.” It is much easier to point to a database that has “scholarly” content than to encourage students working on a research paper to really think critically through the specific nature of their inquiry and integrate all of these sources into a cohesive whole. This is especially challenging when working with college freshman that may have never done a research paper at all. It is a tension which I think will never be easily resolved.

Einsinger finds that:

Facts are important, and should not be dismissed as irrelevant. But teaching only facts, especially in an age when they are so easily retrievable, without the complex contexts of the unknown, may leave our students more disengaged from and uninterested in the world around us. Teaching ambiguity may or may not make our students more civically engaged, or more likely to score higher on standardized tests.

But we live in ambiguous times. Today’s and tomorrow’s students should be prepared to engage in a world where societal problems do not necessarily have definitive solutions. Economic insecurity, wars in remote places and accelerating technological changes make us yearn for certainty. Perhaps our best response to the fluidity that surrounds us is to teach our students what ambiguity is, and how to appreciate it.

I agree with Einsinger’s sentiments, but it is easier said than done.