Internet and Traditional Books

I. Title Library vs. Internet II. Introduction Students are often unable to distinguish appropriate from inappropriate resources. If the information is not available on the internet, it does not exist for them. Librarians and faculty express concern that students do not know how to adequately evaluate the quality of information resources found on the internet. Both  web-based  and traditional  library  resources are useful when conducting research. Each have their own particular strengths and weaknesses. Conducting research is something that every student will eventually have to do. Research projects are done in English class, in foreign language class, in social studies class and in science class. The sooner students are able to master the skills required for conducting research the better off they are going to be. The two most common places to find resources for research projects are in the library and online. Many thousands of web pages exist, comparing the advantages and disadvantages of using the Internet instead of a traditional library. Many of these are personal opinions, with the authors ranging from commercial sites to professional organizations. By limiting their research to the internet, students are ignoring the books, journals, databases, full-text digital resources and other scholarly materials provided by the library. In many academic libraries, use of print resources is decreasing. Use of video and other media appears to be increasing. Ignoring library resources in lieu of web resources may imperil the quality of student learning. You may find instructors who do not allow their students to use web resources in class projects for this very reason. Faculty can have an enormous influence over student choices for research resources. However, the Internet and the Web should not be disregarded as valuable research tools. With proper training and cross-referencing, both can be highly effective and efficient means by which students locate information. As computers are becoming more common in schools and homes, students and teachers are becoming more computer literate and Internet literate. The library is the traditional place to conduct research for a school research project. Libraries contain a large collection of books, periodicals and multimedia resources. They also have live people there called librarians who are available to help you find the information that you need. Libraries also give you the opportunity to read hardcopies of the reference materials that you use and they have photocopying machines available to students so that they can take home a copy of the information that they need. Libraries are established for the systematic collection, organization, preservation and dissemination of knowledge and information. It is very important for man to preserve and maintain the valuable knowledge and information contained in the books and documents because we want to preserve our knowledge and wisdom for the coming generations. By preserving the documents in a library this knowledge can be made available to others so that they can benefit from it. Establishment of libraries is not a new concept. The oldest library dates to around 2700 years ago in Sennacherib's Palace in Nineveh which shows how long ago the concept of leaving a piece of your wisdom behind started being formed into the organized collection to preserve the work. While libraries are wonderful resources for a variety of reference materials, they do have a few limitations. First of all libraries are not usually open 24 hours a day seven days a week. This means that your access to the research materials is limited to the hours of operation of the library. Secondly, the books in a library can be somewhat out-of-date, particularly in smaller libraries. Finally, libraries can be crowded and access to reference materials, computers and other pieces of equipment can be limited by the number of people who also need to use those items. Internet research  is the practice of using the  Internet, especially the World Wide Web, for  research. The internet is widely used and readily accessible to hundreds of millions of  people  in many parts of the  world. It can provide practically instant  information  on most topics, and has a profound impact on the way  ideas  are formed and  knowledge  is created. The Internet solves many of the problems associated with conducting research in a physical library. First of all students have instant access to reference materials 24 hours a day seven days a week. Students also do not have to travel to get to the reference materials that are found online. This means that they can find references for their research project any time and it also means that they can access these references from anywhere that has a computer an Internet access. Finally, the Internet provides students access to multiple databases and sources of information, many of which are not going to be found in a library. Common applications of  Internet researchinclude personal research on a particular subject (something mentioned on the news, a health problem, etc. ,  students  doing research for academic projects and papers, and  journalists  and other  writers researching stories. It should be distinguished from  scientific research  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ research following a defined and rigorous process – carried out on the Internet; from straight forward finding of specific info, like locating a name or phone number; and from research  about  the Internet. Co mpared to the Internet, print physically limits access to information. A book has to be identified, then actually obtained. On the Net, the Web can be searched, and typically hundreds or thousands of  pagescan be found with some relation to the topic, within seconds. Just like a physical library the Internet has research limitations. The first limitation is based on the student’s ability to access a computer, electricity and Internet access. The second problem is that not all information found online is good information. There are a lot of websites that have inaccurate and incomplete information. These problems can be overcome by focusing research efforts solely on websites that are run by government or other authoritative organizations or by using databases that hold peer reviewed journals. Many predict that the digital age will wipe public bookshelves clean, and permanently end the centuries-old era of libraries. As libraries' relevance comes into question, librarians face an existential crisis at a time when students need them the most. User demand is ever increasing and putting a great pressure on the librarians. Therefore, there is an imperative need for the modernization of libraries in order to keep pace with the modern times. The new challenges in the field of Library and Information Science can be met by adopting the process of digitization and networking. In the present age the Librarians have to face many problems due to the limitations of time and space. User satisfaction is the main objective of a good library. It cannot be achieved without adopting the modern tools and techniques rendered available by the modern technologies available in the field of Information and telecommunication. These developments have led to the creation of Digital and Virtual Libraries, which have great advantages over the traditional libraries. Therefore, digital libraries are becoming popular due to the advantages and facilities, which are offered by them to their users. III. â€Å"Accuracy is another area where the Internet information and library information are dissimilar. Before information reaches a library, it is filtered in three ways: (a) it is written and/or issued by an authoritative source such as the federal government or a reliable organization; (b) it is authenticated as part of an editorial or peer review process by a publisher; or (c) it is evaluated by experts, reviewers, or subject specialists/librarians as part of collection development (Brandt, 1996). In a library, the information is then selected, reviewed again, evaluated, and catalogued. The information is selected for specific purposes and specific reasons to be included in a section. Information on the Web has no evaluation criteria. Anyone can publish anything on the Web. It is important that teachers and students do not take information found on the Web at face value. Facts and figures should always be cross-referenced with other resources. † — http://www2. hawaii. edu/~nguyen/web/literature1. htm