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Articles · Will networking allow libraries of the future to be replaced by computers? · xxxxxxxx |
Web Research 1. IntroductionInformation on the Internet is just clicks away. The freely available information makes it convenient for producing reports, homework or assignments – or is it not? We will explore its history, development, and its characteristics in this chapter. Information resources for Chula students are also introduced. 2. History of Computer and Online InformationThe word ‘computer’ comes from the root word ‘compute’
which means calculating. Computers in the old days were originally made for
computing. Computer machines were machines like tabulating machine, punch
cards and analog computer. Computers were developed to handle information for
the very first time around 1930s when Vanneva Bush
invented the first Hypertext application on analog computer. The very first
machines that can really be called “digital computers” were built in the
period from 1939 to 1944 (Encyclopedia
Britannica 3. History of the Internet and the World Wide WebThe Internet is a worldwide collection of networks. The World Wide Web (WWW or the Web) is a graphical interface that utilizes the Internet to distribute and retrieve information (Shelly, Cashman, and Kosteba 2006, 2-3). The history of the Internet began in 1969 by the support of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, a unit of the U.S. Department of Defense. It was originally developed for encrypting messages for military purposes. The message sent is divided into packets. The software that took care of the packets and reassembling of the packets is called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) where the TCP does the packeting and reassembling of the message and the IP handles the addressing. They called the network ARPANet at the time. Before long, computers from research universities and defense contractors joined the network. Later ARPANet began to join many other networks, producing a lager network. However, the ARPANet finally ceased operation, but the networks still remains – under the new name “the INTERNET”. There were many Internet communication tools around the time namely E-mail, Gopher, telnet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP). They provided access to vast quantity of information but relied on prior knowledge of the location and availability of resources as well as knowledge of commands to access and use them. Therefore, their use was limited to those with some basic knowledge of computer networking and uptake was slow (Cooked 2001, 5) until the access and use was made easy by the web. The development of the web began in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee and his colleagues at CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva). He perceived that his work would be easier if he and his far-flung colleagues could easily link to one another’s computers. He created a protocol, called the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and a language for displaying information on web pages called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) so information can be accessed through links using web browsers. He saw the set of links from computer to computer as a spider’s web; hence the name Web. His web browser was originally text-based web browser and was made available for general release in January 1992. The HTTP and the HTML, however, did not receive much attention until the development of Mosaic, a graphical web browser, and subsequent versions that could run on Windows and Macintosh operating systems (Capron 2000, 211-212; Chowdhury 2001, 1; Notess 2006, 5).
Tim Berners-Lee Graphical web browser - after the text-based browser Mosaic was developed in the USA at the national Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois and was released in September 1993. Subsequently the Mosaic staff started their own company and developed one of the most popular web browsers of today, Netscape Navigator. The most popular web browser, Internet Explorer from the Microsoft Corporation, appeared soon after (Chowdhury 2001, 1). In July 1995, Microsoft released the Windows 95 operating system, which included built-in support for dial-up networking and TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), key technologies for connecting to the Internet. In response to the growing public interest in the Internet, Microsoft created an add-on to the operating system called Internet Explorer 1.0. When Windows 95 with Internet Explorer debuted, the Internet became much more accessible for many more people (“A History of Internet Explorer” [n.d.]). Today, there’s yet one other competitive web browser, the Fire Fox, developed by Mozilla. It is open source software (free) and is an alternative choice for web surfing among many today. 4. Information on the WWW today and limitationsToday, there are all sorts of information available on the web, for example · Commercial Web sites · Government information ·
Web of links ·
Web OPAC (library catalog) ·
Digital libraries ·
Commercial E-book / E-journal (online databases) ·
Free/Open E-journal ·
Free dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs and
handbooks · News (free current news but paid news archives) ·
Scholarly articles and papers ·
Blogs/web boards ·
Graphics and photographic images ·
Directories · Audio and video clips ·
Maps and geographical information While many of the web information resources are available free of cost, some have restricted access – they can be accessed only by certain categories of users – or are available upon payment (Chowdhury and Chowdhury 2001, 8). Nevertheless, many of us tend to use the famous search engine like Google as a starting point for looking for information. Many students search for web resources for doing their homework and assignments, others seek information for their work – what we call ‘doing research online’. As we search, we’ve come up with a lot of results, feeling satisfied and successful. However, here are some of the problems using web as research tools. 4.1 Information overloadUsers are commonly faced by information overload – too much information to sift through and utilize in any meaningful way (Cooked 2001, 2) How do you find just the right piece of information you are looking for in billion of web pages? (Radford, Barnes, and Linda 2006, 4). 4.2 Coverage of web indexedDespite information overload, search engines cannot fetch and index web pages actually exist on the World Wide Web. In fact, Web search engines, even Google, are still a long way from providing access to all information. They do not even begin to search all the information available on the Internet. (Notess, 2006, 9). According to the study by BrightPlanet (Bergman 2001), the web is a huge reservoir of information filled with billions of documents that search engines such as Yahoo! Google and Lycos just barely scratch the surface of. By the study’s estimates, the ‘surface web’ contains 19 terabytes (trillions of bytes), compared with 7500 terabytes hidden in the ‘deep web’. The deep web is qualitatively different from the surface web, because the content is stored there in searchable databases that only produce results dynamically in response to a direct request 4.3 Useless informationAbout 99.99 percent of web resources are useless for obtaining serious research for class assignments (Radford, Barnes, and Linda 2006, 4). Although billions of web pages are packed full of information, no one is in charge of quality control (Radford, Barnes, and Linda 2006, 4). 4.4 Inaccurate information/ hate speech and misleading informationNot only is much of the information available via the Internet is potentially useless, but it may also be inaccurate and misleading. This has become an area of particular concern with regard to health information, particularly as most readers are likely to have used the Internet at one time or another to find information relating to their own health or health of a friend or relative (Cooked 2001, 3-4) . Although Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Search already index billions of Web pages, none of them provide accurate, authoritative answers to many questions (Notess 2006, 9). 5. The Internet Vs the LibraryWhen doing class assignments, if you search information on the web, it’ll take long processes for obtaining quality information on the web: searching, filtering, evaluating. Consider using quality-guaranteed information such as resources from the library. Most libraries today offer resources in print and electronic format. Most electronic resources are the ‘online databases’ or the commercial E-book, E-journal, thesis or news clip databases that are available upon paid subscription fees. For Chula community, ‘online databases’ are called ‘CU-Reference Databases’. If you are on campus, you can access these resources from any computer connected to the network, but if you want to use them from off-campus, you need to log in to Chula network via ‘Web VPN’ and verify yourself as a Chula, then you’ll be able to use them. These resources, however, cannot replace the entire print resources in the library since the library may acquire some amount of books and journals in print version alone, some in print and electronic access, and some in electronic version alone. 6. ConclusionThe Internet and the libraries have pros and cons – each can best provide information on different situations, so try to use them in complementary. Bibliographies“A history of Internet Explorer.” [n.d.] Web. 7 Jul. 2011. <http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/products/history> Bell,
Suzanne S. Librarian's Guide
to Online Searching. Bergman, Michael K. “White Paper: The Deep Web: Surfacing Hidden Value” The Journal of Electronic Publishing 7.1 (August, 2001). Web. 1 Aug. 2011. < http://hdl.handle.net/ 2027/spo.3336451.0007.104> Bourne, Charles P. and Hahn, Trudi Bellardo. A History of Online Information Services, 1963-1976. Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, 2003. Print. Capron, H.L. Computers : Tools for an Information Age : Instructor's Edition. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Prentice Hall, 2000. Print. Cooke, Alison. A Guide to Fnding Quality Information on the Internet : Selection and Evaluation Strategies. 2nd ed. London : Library Association, 2001. Print. Chowdhury, G G and Chowdhury Sudatta. Information Sources and Searching on the World Wide Web. London : Library Association, 2001. Clegg, Brian. Studying Using the Web: the Student's Guide to Using the Ultimate Information Resource. Abingdon : Routledge, 2006. Print. “Major
Search Engines and Directories.” March 27, 2007. Web. 8 Aug. 2011. Notess, Greg R. Teaching Web Search Skills : Techniques and Strategies of Top Trainers. Medford, N.J. : Information Today, 2006. Print. Radford, Marie L. ; Barnes, SusanB. and Barr, Linda R. Web Research: Selecting, Evaluating and Cting. Boston : Allyn and Bacon, 2002. Print. Rosen, Leonard J. The Academic Writer’s Handbook. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. Print. Shelly, Gary B. ; Cashman, Thomas J. ; and Kosteba, Linda A. Web Design : Introductory Concepts and Techniques . 2nd ed. Australia : Thomson, 2006. Print. |