Libraries and the Internet

Old Search Engine, the Library, Tries to Fit Into the Google World by Katie Hafner (NYTimes, 21 June 2004)

People are relying more and more heavily on the Internet in their research--and that includes students and faculty working on scholarly research. Of course, simply saying that they are conducting more of their research using electronic resources isn't necessarily bad.

Many or most college and research libraries have a significant collection of databases to replace the print periodical indexes and also to provide the full-text of some journals and books. Use of these resources can legitimately replace use of the physical, to the extent that they reliably provide answers to questions and give a sense of what is currently happening in an area. However, "current" is a key word, as the majority of the databases don't extend any farther back than the 1980's, if that far back. In very few fields is there any real sense of history in these databases; that is largely still to be found in the traditional physical library--print, microform.

What causes more concern is the individuals who attempt to research using only Google or other general search engines. As the article touches on, the results turned up in this manner can be unreliable, incomplete, and otherwise not fit for use in scholarly research.

I guess I have to keep educating students and faculty here about what we have available.