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Internet



I've been sitting here doing other things but occasionally
reading the debate on filtering, internet, quality of research,
etc.   Internet "research" should be like all others...you use
a variety of sources, evaluate what and how to use them,
and cite your information.   Most of the complaints that I
have with students utilizing the internet comes to: (1) they
(or the site) has no documentation of the source of the in-
formation, so you cannot verify or rebut the information;
and (2) the internet is being used as a sloppy substitute
for basic work.   If the teacher says put together a blbio-
graphy on Winston Churchill--she means to find the books,
look at them, evaluate them, etc...--she does not mean
tapping into a library computer and printing out the library
holdings for Winston Churchill.

Unfortunately I'm seeing more and more of the "sloppy"
research....and statements like "gee, I can't find any early
Florida newspapers on the internet" (as in why aren't they
all scanned and online)....  the other basic question is that
I do not believe it is possible for software to evaluate the
validity of the content of an internet site, as I think Peter
suggested.   But that is why there have always been librarians,
to help you evaluate the validity of two or more sources...
That's what archivists do, too, in a manner of speaking when
we perform reference service.   We may indeed give a priority
to one source of information over another.

Dean

Dean DeBolt
University Librarian
Special Collections and West Florida Archives
John C. Pace Library
University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
Tele:  850-474-2213;   Fax:  850-474-3338

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