On the surface, the Internet may seem like a large database of information that can be compared to a library. The Internet does contain much information, and the Internet is up to date. However, Library Information Studies, hereafter referred to as LIS, is a scholarly field that grounds itself in logical organization of and ease of access to information. Compared to LIS, the Internet falls short to a great extent. The most evident of these shortcomings are cataloguing and accuracy (Descy, 1997).
A library has a very systematic way in which information is catalogued to enable searchers to locate the desired information. The information is organized and categorized under the Library of Congress or Dewey Decimal System and is recognized by scholars worldwide (Dennis & Harrington, 1990). The Web, on the other hand, has no system for consistency. Different search engines such as Yahoo, Infoseek, and Webcrawler add information to their databases in different ways. When a search string is entered into these databases, different results are derived depending on the search engine that is utilized. Descy (1997) conducted a search for "educational technology" in the three search engines mentioned above. Yahoo returned no matches, Infoseek returned the "best 100 matches", and Webcrawler produced 87,987 matches. The resulting information was very different.
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.
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.
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