Victoria:
Our guest this week is Ben Chiewphasa. He is Government Information Librarian and Assistant Professor at the University of Montana. As a librarian, he is trained in library and information sciences—the study of how information gets collected, organized, preserved, and distributed. Information is all around us: when you turn on the TV, read a news article, watch a YouTube video, and a lot more! Ben’s research focuses on how other scientists gather and organize information in order to solve the research questions they are asking. Ben actively thinks about how people interact with information and learn from information. In the “Age of Google”, the digital landscape offers unparalleled access to all sorts of information that allows us to better understand what is happening around the world; but is it all factual and high-quality? The short answer is no. Ben works with college students and professors to identify misinformation (false or inaccurate information) and determine how our biases affect information seeking behaviors.
This week’s questions were submitted by the listeners through emails and on social media and by students at Bromwell Elementary in Denver, Colorado.
Ben, thank you so much for talking to us today.
Ben Chiewphasa:
Thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure.
Victoria:
Is there anything that you’d like to add about what you do?
Ben Chiewphasa:
That all sounds about right.
Victoria:
(Kayla – Why is there so much information out there?)
Okay. With that, we can jump into the questions.
This first question comes from Kayla. Why is there so much information out there?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Ooh, good one. So I think it’s because nowadays it’s just so easy to create and share information online and through digital means. So there’s a great increase in the channels to receive information, to give out information. So we think about the radio exists, television, print media, websites, email, our smartphones, all of this creating this very, very complex landscape where information just traverses, right.
So in 2019, to put everything in perspective, so last year there were 293.6 billion emails that got sent and received every day. That’s a large number.
Victoria:
That’s crazy.
Ben Chiewphasa:
I know. Right? And another one too, another fun statistic. So last year as well, 2019, every single minute, there were approximately 500 hours’ worth of videos that got uploaded on YouTube. Every minute, not every day, every minute.
Victoria:
Wow.
Ben Chiewphasa:
So a lot of information, right? A lot being just, you know, transported, received, viewed, interacted with. And to make it even more expansive and marvelous the scale, thinking about that too, about how there’s not only efforts to create new information, but to also make old information more accessible and digitized. So making historical information available through digital means. So a lot of those efforts are happening as well as we’re also creating new information.
So where I work right now at the University of Montana, for example, I have a colleague that has shepherded and spearheaded a project to digitize 110, 20 years’ worth of a print student newspaper called the Kaimin at the University of Montana. So digitizing that and now making it accessible online. And before then this print newspaper was only available through print means. Right? So a physical, tangible medium. But now you can find it by a Google search or through other search engines.
So again, thinking about lots of ways to share, duplicate, create information, both new and old, and it’s a lot, right?
Victoria:
(David – How many ways are there to get information?)
That’s very cool. Okay. This is a good follow-up to that, speaking of ways to get information. David wants to know how many ways are there to get the information.
Ben Chiewphasa:
Ooh, how many? Well, there are many ways.
So you can get information through directly communicating and talking with your community. So interacting with your grandparents, neighbors, family, friends. This is the sort of information that’s shared through our cultural and spiritual traditions. Maybe what we learned through cooking, through the foods we eat, through the celebrations we get involved with.
There’s also information that can get through just living on a day to day experience, what you learn, what you know. So dealing with the issues that impact our lives every day.
Also getting information by finding and using mainstream knowledge. And some of this information can be found through traversing the Internet, through Internet search. Sometimes you have to pay for this information, and sometimes if you want to interact with information that has cost associated with it, then there there’s means to get it for free, sometimes you can, for example, visit your local library to work with them, to gain access to this sort of information.
Yeah, so, many, many different ways. Some of which are really at, you know, just talking with your friends and family.
Victoria:
(Max – What’s the best way to get information?)
All right. Good follow-up to that comes from Max. What’s the best way to get information?
Ben Chiewphasa:
I think it’s needing to be open, flexible, adaptable, and be willing to use many tools that are available to you, experimenting with different search engines. For the most part, you know, a lot of people know about Google, but there’s also several other great search engines out there as well. Each one may return different search results. Even if you use the same kind of keywords or using the same search strategies. As the librarian, I guess this is fun to say, but you know, don’t forget about your library as well.
And as I mentioned a little earlier, too, it’s important to note that information has value, okay. Some information is free, and free information is usually easily accessible and easily findable in something like Google, but some information isn’t free. So a lot of times when we think about libraries, they provide the services or provides the service points that grants access to information that’s hard to come by, because that information is generally not freely available. And the nice thing about libraries too is that there are people in person. People virtually that can provide assistance in helping locate information that’s just not easily find-able. Okay.
And if you are using search engines, the best way to go about doing your searching and finding information in an efficient manner is to be really persistent. Okay. A searching and finding information can take time. So I recommend that you don’t give up and utilize resources available to you or ask around if you need assistance. When you’re using key words, try to think of alternative words, synonyms, cause you’re a search engine to return different results and maybe help you locate what you need. Sometimes when we’re looking for information online, where, you know, where we’re finding so many useful things, so many things that aren’t useful. And sometimes it’s a lot to juggle, right. So I recommend using a bookmark feature. So maybe you’re on, you know, Firefox you’re on Google Chrome, to use bookmarks whenever you conduct research online, because allows you to then easily move quickly between information that you found useful; it helps you backtrack to places you’ve visited before. So it’s all about, you know, saving time, being efficient, thinking about how to best facilitate that in what you do with your research. So, yeah.
Victoria:
Cool. It’s always good to know that this other search engines. Cause I always just think of Google, but I should be more aware of all the others out there.
Ben Chiewphasa:
Right, right. So it’s also thinking about how Google, you know, gives you sometimes millions of results in your initial keyword search, right. But I think the challenge is how do we narrow that down? How do we, you know, dissipate the noise? How do we explore that noise and really hone in on what we’re actually trying to find? And that can sometimes admittedly be challenging, but again, I recommend being persistent and not giving up.
Victoria:
That’s good to know. Good to remember.
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yeah. Yeah.
Victoria:
(Fynn – What is the best way to share information?)
This question is pretty related to that one from Max. This question is from Fynn. What is the best way to share information?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yeah. As there’s many ways to locate information. There’re also many ways to share information as well. I think about through social media, through email, through even handwriting letters, sending letters, phone calls.
At the end of the day, when we think about the best way to share information, we have to really think about being aware of how people learn best. Generally people like to learn through using visuals: pictures, images; and a lot of people learn best through a verbal cues: people learn through listening, through reciting to understand new concepts and new knowledge.
So, and because of that, one of the best ways to share information is through live presentations. So knowledge sharing in front of a live audience. Right. So. That provides the environment to field in the moment, questions, to clarify certain points, to get nonverbal feedback from your audience. And some of you all may already be doing this sort of work. Be doing live presentations, in your schools, you know, presenting in front of your class, that in a way as you practice one of the best ways to share information.
But if you’re more of a behind the scenes kind of person, then knowledge sharing through writing, I think provides a really great way to not only share information, but to also maybe preserve your knowledge for posterity. And the nice thing about writing, whether you’re sharing it through email or sending a letter, is that it provides the reader the opportunity to really digest what you’re trying to communicate, and it can facilitate ongoing discussion, and development either through, you know, through written means or other verbal means for those that read the content.
So, but I’d say probably the best way to share information is through live presentations. And I know that it can sometimes be a scary thing to do. Right. You know, you’re kind of exposed, you’re out there, and you’re, you know, presenting to multiple people. But it can be fun too.
Victoria:
Yeah. And some of our previous guests on this podcast may have mentioned, they present their research at scientific conferences, and those are opportunities where scientists come together and they all present their research. So it’s good to know that scientists are using the best way of sharing information.
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yeah. And there’s a reason for that, right? Because you know, when scientists go to conferences, they, you know, they present their research findings things. Maybe they’re using a PowerPoint presentation to facilitate the discussion via images. And it really, you know, the wonderful thing about conferences too, is that yes, you know, a scientist presents, but then it’s the magic that happens after they present too, where they field questions, they network with other scientists, which can result in future collaboration or new projects or kind of add-ons to projects that are ongoing right now. So really facilitating that continual dialogue that extends beyond the in the moment method of sharing information. So there, there is a reason why a lot of scientists love to share information in a conference setting. But that is a great point. Thanks for bringing up the conferences.
Victoria:
(Emily – Do you study fake news?)
Yeah. All right. Switching gears a little bit. Emily wants to know, do you study fake news?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Ooh. Good question. So I really dive deep into that. I wanted to define fake news first. So fake news is, as the name suggests is false. It’s a news that is often sensational. It is essentially information that’s disseminated under the guise of news reporting. It’s, you know, it’s almost camouflaging as real news, but there’s all this glitz and glam that makes it, you know, seem like it’s actual news when in actuality it is misinformation. Okay.
So this fake news is important to think about in today’s age because with information now being so accessible, there’s a lot of information platforms, a lot of industries and companies and groups that you know, are seeking profits, competing for hits through tactics like clickbait where something seems so enticing online because it has colorful photos or really, you know, exciting headline, which makes it so enticing that we click on it. Right.
But the question is, how do we know if it’s real? Or not? And so to go back to the original question, I teach about fake news, as a librarian I would trained in helping students helping scientists evaluate information that they work with, information that they find, whether that’s you know, a news article, whether that’s research papers, teaching others how to determine whether or not information that they found is appropriate for how they’re going to use it. Okay.
So in terms of fake news, I ask the students that I work with a lot of questions about the news that is in front of them. A lot of questions about the validity, about the author, about what makes good information good. All right. So I’m trying to get them thinking so that they are well equipped to assess whether or not the news in front of them are fake or not.
Victoria:
(Steve – What is the best way to identify misinformation and avoid seeing it an believing it?)
Awesome. And I think that leads in well to Steve’s question. What is the best way to identify misinformation and avoid seeing it and believing it?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Okay. Great. So there’s so much information out there. Good information, and misinformation. That I would argue that it’s sometimes impossible to completely avoid seeing a misinformation coming across. But I really do think that you all are smart enough to identify misinformation. Okay.
So it’s important to consider where that information is coming from, to determine whether or not it is misinformation. So for example, if we click on a website, I recommend that you investigate the website’s overall mission. Okay. So why does the website exist? What’s its purpose? What’s its intent? Contact information, do they provide contact information to utilize in case you have follow up questions or you have concerns that you want to address with whoever created the information?
It also important to check for the author too. If we find a news article for example, you can do research on who created the content. Are they credible? Are they even real? Are they a real person? Is the URL legitimate? If you’re working with news stories, does it seem one-sided or biased, sort a particular point of view? Yeah, so many questions, right?
Another one to consider too is thinking about dates. It’s important to check the date for certain information. Because when we’re finding that there are certain avenues of information reposting old news stories, it doesn’t mean that that news story is going to reflect current events, especially when you’re trying to make a claim from an argument. So, you know, if you’re finding statistics related to economy in 2008, those statistics may not be as relevant compared to the 2014 or 2020, for example, unless of course, you’re, you know, you’re doing research on the history of our economy. Right. But to make the claim that the statistics apply to a different year may, you know, veer towards misinformation.
Sometimes when we think of news, it’s also important to read beyond the headlines and read beyond titles. Headlines can be very showy, outrageous, again, in efforts to get your clicks, in efforts for you to engage with the content. But at the end of the day, you have to ask, you know, what it is, you know, the whole story.
So, to backtrack, I think you all are smart enough to identify misinformation. And it’s a skillset that I think is really important because it’s sometimes just really hard to avoid seeing it. Okay.
Victoria:
All right. A lot of good information from you about how to avoid it and questions to ask. That’s really informative.
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yeah. Yeah.
Victoria:
(Jane – If you find bad information, how do you get rid of it?)
This next question is from Jane. If you find bad information, how do you get rid of it?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Ooh, okay. So you know what, it’s admittedly sometimes really hard to get rid of it. But, you can make a lot of choices on your end to prevent the spread of bad information. Okay. So what you can do is avoid the temptation of spreading false news. And sometimes too specifically when we think of websites, there are some times at the bottom of web pages a section where you can add comments. So maybe that’s a good space for you to provide your own corrections or provide other avenues, you know, other links to more correct information. If we’re thinking about, you know, research articles, scholarly content, sometimes the best way to go about addressing bad information is to perhaps consider contacting the author, maybe get clarification from there.
So but yeah, it’s admittedly sometimes hard to get rid of it, but you have a lot of choices at your disposal to prevent the spread of bad information.
Victoria:
(Anabelle- How do you find all the information? It is more than just what’s on Google?)
Awesome. That’s good to know.
This is probably something that you’ve already answered, but if you want to elaborate, that’s totally fine. Anabelle wants to know how do you find all the information? Is it more than just what’s on Google?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yeah. So similar to what I said before, you know. Finding information requires that we think about the different tools, resources, search strategies at our disposals.
And as I sort of mentioned a little earlier, too, a lot of the information you see out there in Google is free information, but it’s important to remember that information has value. Okay. information is such a powerful concept and a powerful construct in our society which makes its valuable, right. Information can influence what we educate in our schools; information can be used to influence people on making big decisions, at the government level, at the policy level, at the, at the level, which, you know, structures our laws, how society functions; information can be used as means to negotiate and understand our world. Okay. Legal and economic interests influence how information also gets produced or spread. And because of that, it’s not surprising that information has a cost. And when we think about Google, that that’s a free mean that’s a no cost means to get information, right. But because not necessarily everything you find in Google is going to be there because of paywalls, barriers that prevent people from accessing certain kinds of information because you need to pay for it. Okay.
And as I mentioned a little earlier too, the wonderful thing about libraries is that there are services there that allows you to grant access to information that’s hard to come by, specifically information that has a cost associated with it.
Victoria:
(Theo- How does Google get all the information?)
(Linzi – Do you help Google give out information?)
Cool. Let’s transit a little bit into a couple of questions about Google. This is a pair of questions. The first question is from Theo. How does Google get all of the information? And the second question is from Linzi. Do you help Google give out the information?
Ben Chiewphasa:
All right. So for the first for Theo’s question. Yeah, it’s a pretty complicated process in how Google gets all the information.
So Google uses software they’re called bots, a nickname associated with bots or spiders. So you think of Google, literally sending out millions of spiders across the worldwide web, and all these spiders are like weaving webs to capture all sorts of information. Okay. And then another nickname to describe this process is crawling, web crawling. So literally spiders crawling across the web.
And after this process of crawling. Google captures all this information, right? All the information of every site is then stored on their servers. And so a place to, you know, keep the information that they’ve gathered. And then what Google does next is that they index each and every word on each website, similar to when we think of book indexes. So maybe think about, you know, you have a school textbook and at the very last few pages of the book, there’s going to be an index where there’s, you know, kind of key core concepts or key words that tell you on what cage you can, you know, go look for it. So similar to that, essentially, but on a much bigger scale. Right?
So anyways, after the process of indexing, Google then does something where they rank each and every webpage result for all of the possible search query, using an algorithm known as page rank. So what page rank does, it’s a process that determines the relevance of each search results based upon many, many factors. So for example, if we do like a Google search on Star Wars, it’s not surprising that the first result you’re going to get is starwars.com, which is the official site for Star Wars. And that in turn reflects the page rank mechanism associated with Google’s web crawling process.
So Linzi’s question regarding do I help Google give out information? I don’t actively help Google by giving out information nor do I work for Google. But something to keep in mind though, is that we all in a way are helping out Google when we put something online, whether we’re tweeting something on Twitter, whether we’re making an Instagram posts, we’re all in a way giving information to Google due to this web crawling process that they facilitate.
Victoria:
Cool. I like all this spider analogy.
Ben Chiewphasa:
I’m not a huge fan of spiders personally, but talking about that too, it really, you know, it makes sense, right? You have like all these little bots that are making webs and grabbing things. So it’s a cool, I guess a cool imagery.
Victoria:
(Joe- What are the most unusual search engines you use?)
Yeah. All right, this next question is about different search engines. Joe wants to know what are the most unusual search engines that you use?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Hmm. Good question.
So one of my favorites, that’s an arguably unusual too, is govinfo.gov. You know, on the surface level, it doesn’t seem that unusual. So it is a search engine that provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of our federal government. Why I argue that it’s unusual is that you can find some really unexpected contents. For example, what the government has documented or talked about with regards to UFO sightings in our country, that sort of information can be found in gov info.
Another search engine that’s arguably unusual too. Well, unusual in the sense that maybe improper to use, but I use the significant volcanic eruption database. That’s maintained by the national oceanic and atmospheric administration. So what this search engine does, it lists over 500 significant volcanic eruption and provides information on latitude longitude. So the geospatial context of the volcano, what type of volcano it is, what its known eruption is. And I use this one because I do research on how the government handles volcanic eruptions, what they do, what they invest in, how they react when volcanic eruptions affect surrounding communities.
So yeah, I’d say that those are some of the more unusual search engines that I use in my work.
Victoria:
(Leigh – How is all the information stored in the library?)
Very cool. Okay. Transitioning to some questions more about libraries. Leigh wants to know how is all the information stored in the library?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yeah. So information is stored in many ways in the library, and one of which is through books, right? And books and documents, so tangible things, that are stored on our bookshelves.
Some libraries out there have something called in archives and special collections unit. So special collections include like, they house rare books, the house manuscript, papers, even items like clothing, things that have unique value and importance to the study of material, cultural, history, literature, and many other subjects. So, and oftentimes special collections are really fragile. They’re really rare. Maybe they’re one of a kind in our world. And because of that, they’re super valuable. And typically, these kinds of materials don’t circulate, you can’t just go in the library and grab it immediately. You may need to talk with an archivist, talk with the librarian to gain access to using special collections items. Okay.
Also libraries store information in the Internet as well, especially content that is digital, content that is digitized, content that requires the use of a computer to really navigate around.
I recommend if you’re interested in finding all of the resources available at the library, you personally visit to explore. Libraries have their own search engine where you can essentially find information on how to access the information. Right? So, if you go through the search engine, you can find that, Hey, my library has this particular book, and also this book is located, through this, they call it a call number in library speak, but essentially what a call number is the address of where the book lives in the library. So you can gather that sort of information through a search engine, so that you know where to walk to, you know where to go to in, you know, the rows and rows of bookshelves, to actually get the book that you want to check out.
Victoria:
(Rex – Do you study information only on the internet or all types of information?)
Cool. This next question is from Rex, do you study information only on the Internet or all types of information?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yeah, I study all types of information, Rex. So in particular though, I’m interested in government information and data. So why love government information so much is that, government publications provide really current and historical information that encompasses really wide range of subjects. Right? When art and architecture, business and economics, criminal justice. education, our environment, laws and regulations. A lot of government information and data is in the Internet, but a lot isn’t as well. Actually, government information that predates the 1970s and the older it is, the higher likelihood that it isn’t available online, it’s only available in print. And there’s only so few areas that hold certain government publications in print too. So something to keep in mind.
Victoria:
(Joe – What’s the most unusual piece of information you have uncovered in searching for information?)
Cool. This is a fun question from Joe. What’s the most unusual piece of information you have uncovered in searching for information.
Ben Chiewphasa:
Ooh, that is a fun question. I work with government documents, like I said earlier, and yeah, a lot of times when people think of government documents, they imagine just texts, like words on, you know, boring piece of paper that relates to just laws, regulations, statistics, numbers, technical information, right. But really government documents, government publications encompass everything produced by our local state and federal government. And some of these things are really unusual and really unexpected.
So for example, not too long ago, I helped a student at the university I work at, so at the University of Montana, find coloring books that were produced by the United States forest service. So I was helping them locate some smoky the bear coloring books in our library collection. So I think that would be something unusual or unexpected as it relates to government documents that I’ve helped uncover and find.
Victoria:
Oh, that’s so cute. Very fun.
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yeah. Very fun.
Victoria:
(Daniel – How many other scientists do you work with?)
Okay. Daniel wants to know how many other scientists do you work with?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Huh? Good question. Hmm. You know what I can’t really pull out to an exact number. Maybe about 10 last year. I work with a variety of scientists at the University of Montana and really many different fields, like biologists, geologists, environmental scientists. I also work with a lot of soon to be scientists as well, so PhD students, those that are working towards graduating with a PhD. And I work with the students to help them find, locate, and access information that they can use for their research projects. And some of their research projects can take many years to finish, and some of their research projects won’t take that long as well.
But yeah, I work with a variety, not only do I work with a number of scientists, but those belonging in really many, many disciplines.
Victoria:
(Jane – Is there a particular type of science you like working with the best?)
This is a really good follow-up question to that from Jane. Is there a particular type of science that you like working with?
Ben Chiewphasa:
I’m a little biased here, but I like working with archeologists, because I used to be an archeologist. So I used to work for the forest service where I did archeological surveys in the Bitterroot National Forest, as well as the Helena National Forest in Western Montana. And I like working with archeologists because I really like talking, but talk of archeology.
But in general too, I love working with social scientists, because social scientists, a lot of their research questions deal with the study of people, on the study of our societies. Something very complex. Right? I think social sciences helps us as a civilization, understand ourselves, our unique relationships with others, our relationships to the world, addressing the larger question of, you know, as human beings, why do we do the things we do? And I love asking those questions, which probably makes it not surprising that I love working with social scientists.
Victoria:
(Joe – Do you use any unusual sources to find scientific information?)
Awesome. This next question. I feel like you’ve touched on this quite a bit, but I’ll ask it anyway. Joe wants to know, do you use any unusual sources to find scientific information?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yeah, I think an unusual source to find scientific information that I recently utilized, to help a student in particular, was it was a data repository that was maintained by the University of Minnesota. So I was helping a student find 3D model replicas of stone tools that have been used by people in the past. Specifically, it’s stone tools that were excavated through an archeological study at the Tabun Cave in Israel, an archeological site that was occupied intermittently during the lower and middle paleolithic era. So, years wise, think of it as, you know, 500,000 to around 40,000 years ago. But yeah, finding 3D models that you can kind of rotate, you can look at dimensions. So it’s unusual in the sense that, you know, we sometimes think of scientific information as sometimes just, you know, text or graphs, but sometimes it could be really cool mediums and kind of three-dimensional models as well.
Victoria:
(Sophia – How much new information is being added to the internet every day?)
That’s awesome. This next question is from Sophia. And you touched on this earlier, but if you have anything to add. How much new information is being added to the Internet every day,
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yeah. So I sort of touched this on the beginning too, but I’ll throw it another fun statistic out there. So this one is according to Domo, which is a cloud based operating system company, but they claim that internet users generate about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day. So that is another big number that I’ll throw out. So to put into perspective, 2.5 quintillion bytes is equal to the number of all the ants on our planet multiply by a hundred. So, and if we have one quintillion pennies, then we can cover the entire surface of the earth. 1.5 times, with pennies. So, that to show case, you know, how much information is out there when we’re talking about miniscule bytes of information. Right? So not like 12.5 quintillion journal articles, but kind of the small components that make information that make up data.
But, yeah, it’s just really fascinating and what we can learn from, you know, this field of big data, since there’s so much information out there, and it’s only growing.
Victoria:
That’s crazy. Like I can’t even comprehend that number. That’s crazy.
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yeah. Such big numbers that it’s just like, even picturing it, right, is really hard to do. So.
Victoria:
Wow. I’m just to, I guess an internet question. I don’t know if you know this, but this is more of like the technical side of the internet, but all of those bites are stored on servers somewhere. Right? Is that right?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yes. So the funny thing to think about when we think about information on the Internet is that, we think of it as like digital content stuff, that is digital, is stored in this, you know, weird other world that lives behind computer screen. Right. But in actuality, this information is in some respects physical, they’re stored in servers, they actually take up space in some buildings somewhere. So that’s something to keep in mind as well. So even though when we think about, you know, digitized content, the Internet, there’s some physical-ness to it all, to the madness too. Yeah, but that was a, yeah.
Victoria:
Wow. Oh, that’s crazy. Okay. Switching gears a little bit. There’s going to be a whole series of questions about you.
Ben Chiewphasa:
Okay.
Victoria:
(Ann -What’s your favorite way to get information? TV? News? Youtube?)
The first question is, Ann wants to know what’s your favorite way to get information? TV? News? YouTube?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Ooh, that’s a fun question. So I personally love YouTube. I love video, but another favorite way to get information is talking with people to be honest. I mentioned that I’m a huge fan of social sciences. I consider myself to be a social scientist in some respects, but you know, doing interviews with people. And I think it’s my favorite way to get information, because I really think people’s experiences, people’s observations about the world, capturing that really adds value to our own personal understandings of the world. And I just think people are awesome.
Victoria:
(Riley – What’s your favorite website?)
Awesome. Yeah, people are awesome.
Okay. Another favorite question. Riley wants to know what’s your favorite website?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Ooh, another fun question. So I love music, and because of that I’d have to say billboard.com. So. Billboard, just to provide some context, is an organization that maintains charts that tabulate relative weekly popularities of songs we hear on the radio, songs that get bought, albums that get streamed and bought, all around the world. So the magic of billboard is that they have data to really inform and justify if why we hear certain songs on radio more than other songs, why certain songs are popular, why do our friends remember a certain song lyrics that they hear, you know, almost on a daily basis if they listen to the radio, for example. So what’s cool about billboard.com is a compiled weekly charts, and they do this update to the charts at least once every week, if I remember correctly. And yeah, so I love to kind of study the popularity of certain songs, why certain songs become only popular for, you know, a week or two of a particular year, or why certain songs prolong in popularity for weeks on end. And it’s just a great way to also learn about new music.
Victoria:
(Max – How many years of school did you do?)
Fun. Okay. Max wants to know how many years of school did you do?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Lots. So well, I guess about that 23, if you add preschool to the mix. So preschool through, and up through college, I’d say about 23. So I have two master’s degree, one in anthropology, and the other one is on information and library science. And the time it took to work on those two master’s degrees took about four and a half years in total.
Victoria:
(Kayla – What is your favorite book?)
Cool. Another favorite question. Kayla wants to know what is your favorite book?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Ooh, so I’m a theater guy at heart, and I’m a huge fan of Shakespeare. So I’d have to say
A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Victoria:
(Charlie – What is your favorite thing about your job?)
Nice. Good answer. Charlie wants to know, what is your favorite thing about your job?
Ben Chiewphasa:
I think my favorite thing about my job is helping students, helping people, become more and more confident in navigating this intricate ecosystem of information, to really empower them to not only find information, but contribute to the information landscape.
Victoria:
(Dylan – How would your job be different if it was years ago before the internet?)
Oh, that’s awesome.
This is a fun hypothetical question from Dylan. How would your job be different If it was years ago before the Internet?
Ben Chiewphasa:
That’s a great question, Dylan. So yeah, before the Internet, if we think about libraries. Libraries held card catalogs, and card catalogs were the essential way that libraries kept track of their books and kept track of Information on what these books were about. Each book in a library before the Internet would get it in card. And each card I think of like a flashcard, right, would have sometimes handwritten information regarding the author, date published, and other pertinent info, like maybe information on who donated the book for example. And these card catalogs where arranged in kind of a cabinet in alphabetical order by author, by title, subject matter, and had additional indexes.So the cards were organized first by subject and then would be alphabetized based on author’s name. Most libraries used to be filled with card catalogs, drawers upon drawers of paper cards with information about books. So it keeps tabs of what books were owned by a particular library.
Okay. And the point of the card catalog system was really designed to bring order to the chaos. Okay. And it has a pretty interesting history too. The idea behind the card catalog system originated during the French revolution. So when playing cards, where you used to keep track of the library is that French seized from churches and aristocrats. So that’s kind of where the arguably the origin came from. Okay.
So, and at the surge in book publishing at the turn of the 20th century, there is so much cards that it became a problem to maintain. And really it started to die out as a practice in the 1960s and with the beginnings of machine-readable data. And then in the 1970s, many larger libraries were beginning to switch to using computers to store information regarding what books libraries kept. Now in the seventies, in the beginning, especially in the beginning, it wasn’t necessarily using like an online search engine as we knew it. But rather you had to come visit the library in person and use their computer to really find what books were available then. Okay. And eventually. The Internet. Right?
So yeah, I guess that’s something that would have been different, if it was years ago before the Internet, I would have had to rely more on card catalogs to help out people.
Now, I want to say too, that the library profession at the end of the day is all about helping people. So whether that’s helping people in person or through virtual means like online chat, phone, emailing, but that core mission hasn’t necessarily changed arguably.
Victoria:
Awesome. I bet if some of the listeners were to ask their grandparents, their grandparents would remember going to the library and looking at the card catalogs.
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yeah, they probably wouldn’t remember them. That’s funny to think about it. Yeah. But it’s really interesting too to think about how, I work with patrons who come to the library, who they called the library search engine the card catalog still. So, it’s so rooted in library speak that some people call our search engine the library card catalog. So I know what they’re talking about, but yeah, it’s interesting how that kind of practice that really big part of the history of libraries has still persisted to this day.
And it’s also interesting to note too, that a card catalog still exists, in some respect, arguably too. There’s some content, especially at larger libraries, where the online library search engine doesn’t have the complete a hundred percent listing of what the library holds, and that information is solely on a card catalog system still. So it’s still like, yes, it’s pretty much arguably dead right now, but not to say that it’s still doesn’t have its use. And in some respects too, certain card catalogs associated with certain materials is really the only source of information that tells librarians and users of libraries that, that material exists in the library.
Victoria:
That’s cool.
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yeah.
Victoria:
(Stasia – What do you like to do outside of work?)
All right. Let’s see here. This is a fun question from Stasia. What do you like to do outside of work?
Ben Chiewphasa:
Thanks for the question Stasia. So I like to hike. I’m an outdoorsy person. I do stand-up paddle boarding when I have free time. I also really like video games as well. And my favorite video game that I’m playing right now is animal crossing.
Victoria:
Yay.
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yay.
Victoria:
(Maggie – What’s your favorite color?)
And this is our very last question. This is from Maggie. What’s your favorite color?
Ben Chiewphasa:
My favorite color is probably highlighter yellow. Cause it’s so bright. It’s so happy. Yes. Highlighter yellow.
Victoria:
Fun.
All right. That’s all of our questions. Do you have any last comments for the listeners or any questions of your own?
Ben Chiewphasa:
No. So yeah, no, I mean there’s just so much information out there. Right. And we find information, we use information in many different ways, for many different reasons. And at the time I I’ve thrown a lot of, you know, the scale of how large, how impactful, the magnitude of all right can seem overwhelming. And because of that, you may feel sometimes overwhelmed when you’re searching for information. But I really recommend that if you feel overwhelmed, just take a step back and ask around for help, ask your local librarian, ask your teachers, ask your friends and family, to help navigate around this so much information out there.
But having so much information can be seen as an overwhelming thing, but at the same time, it’s also a blessing too, right. We were at a part of history where there there’s so much to consume so much to navigate around, so much to explore, that, you know, when looking for information, it should be a fun experience. And I hope you have fun doing so.
Victoria:
Oh, That’s wonderful. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I really appreciate it. And I’m sure the listeners did too.
Ben Chiewphasa:
Yeah. Well, thanks so much for having you. This was a lot of fun, and I really appreciated all the fun questions, really insightful questions, and thank you so much.
Victoria:
You’re welcome.
Thank you so much for joining us on Ask A Scientist. I hope you learned something and enjoyed meeting Ben. If you have something you would like to ask a scientist, you can send in your questions to askascientistpod@gmail.com. You can also submit questions and follow the podcast on social media, Twitter @_askascientist, Instagram @askascientistpod, and Facebook @askascientistpod. You can also visit the website at http://www.askascientistpod.com/.
If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends and family and write a positive review for the podcast. If you would like to contribute financially to the production of the podcast, you can support it on Patreon.
Thanks Ben for talking to us today and thanks to the listeners and the students at Bromwell Elementary for writing and submitting the questions. Thank you to Anchor for hosting the podcast, and a special thanks to Webberized for making this podcast possible. And thank you to our new production assistant Wanyue Wang. She did the episode transcription and links to more information that is available on our website. The theme music was written and performed by Joe Crystal. Thanks for listening.
Ask a Scientist 