THE INTERNET CAN'T REPLACE LIBRARIES

Libraries are more accurate sources of information for scholars and researchers than the Internet as they provide quality, organized, timely and rich information in this current century where information is quite important for development.

The Internet consists of a small percentage of what’s published. Search engines such as Google, AltaVista, and Yahoo access are limited. ALA reports that only 8% of all journals and even fewer books are on the Internet.  The most reliable scholarly information is available in books and journals.  Preliminary steps to find the appropriate search terms should start with print indexes and subject headings volumes and in addition to this there is no system that catalogs and organizes all resources on the Internet.   A search on the Internet is similar to searching an unclassified catalog.  When you use any of the search engines, you’re searching only part of the Internet.  Searches are not always relevant to your topic and can cause a lot of wasted time, frustration and confusion.

A major concern is that Quality control isn’t easy to achieve on the Internet.  Open Source information on the Internet is quite common and easy to get misinformed information.  Anyone with access to the Internet can publish a Website and may miss some factual considerations.
Although internet serves a wide number of users around the world, Information on the WWW is hard to tell who’s telling you what and where the location of the information is. When you use information in your paper from the Internet, it’s important to print it out and cite your sources.   Information taken from the Web can change overnight.  Information taken from the library or databases in the library gives the exact location.  One must give full documentation when using information from a site and having this in mind, this argument can easily lead to increase in cases of plagiarism and copyright issues.

Users who rely on the internet to carry out a research must have in mind that to Cite the Internet the following bibliographic elements are quite important which the internet at times may fail to provide:

• Author’s name (if known)
• Full title of document in quotation marks
• Title of complete work if applicable (in italics)
• Date of publication of last revision (if available).
• Full URL address (http) enclosed within angle brackets
• Date of visit in parenthesis

Lack of satisfactory bibliographic elements can always be address by the inclusion or use of Libraries Online databases that can be accessed 24 hours a day 7 days a week from the library’s webpage that have been automated. These databases are in the library’s collection and can be accessed on campus and remotely with your University ID via the Internet. This is not to be confused with searching the Internet. Users can also address the discrepancies in citation by employing a manner of subscribing to online certified resources such as emerald journals, from http://emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/index.htm and many more electronic publications. E-books are full-text and searchable. Text can be searched automatically, and cross-referenced using hyperlinks.  Dictionaries, reference works, and some textbooks, benefit from search and cross-reference capabilities.  Content is available 24/7. 

It is also very important for students to note that library resources are paid for with their tuition and fees, so students should take advantage of it.  Libraries provide free access to scholarly books, journals, newspapers, encyclopedias, and other print reference sources.  A lot of information on the Internet is FREE, except scholarly materials.  A paid subscription is required to access and we also realize that knowledgeable and friendly librarians are always available to assist with locating information in person, chat, e-mail or telephone and so researchers and students should request assistance at the beginning of their research and spare valuable time spent on the Internet. 

The library has older materials than the Internet. Digitalization that goes back more than 10-15 years can be difficult to locate on the Internet. The Internet provides more timely information, and is constantly updated.