DETERMINE WHERE TO CONDUCT RESEARCH (INTERNET VS. THE LIBRARY) Go to the links for this article. A site visitor writes: Is there any kind of research that is better done in the library than on the Internet? For instance, can you use the Internet to locate abstracts of articles in scholarly journals, or is it better to check a database at a good library? I doubt that many librarians would dispute the value of the Internet in research. It provides access to missing ; before identifier missing ; before identifier numerous reputable free or low-cost databases, journals, books, reports, and other publications as well as to many important commercial resources. Oftentimes, the Internet serves as the sole source of information, or offers the shortest path to an answer. Conversely, libraries house mounds of materials that are not digitized, and likely never will be - at least, not in my lifetime. Libraries give patrons access to databases that sometimes would be otherwise unavailable, or available at a significantly higher cost. Libraries reverse address search missing ; before identifier also may provide a greater number of authoritative resources in certain subjects. Determining whether the Internet or a library presents a better research environment depends on at least three factors: Source availability. Which provides credible accessible sources that answer the question? Research skills. Can the researcher find and use the available sources? Use of the information. How will the researcher use the information that results from the research? Consider this example: an undergraduate seeks scholarly articles about a current issue in psychology for a national missing persons list missing ; before identifier term paper. Both the Internet and academic libraries offer at least one worthy resource -- PsycINFO, a database of bibliographic citations and abstracts to literature in the field of psychology. A student may, or may not, deem it accessible when he discovers he has to pay for its use via the Internet. But, if the student wants to pay to access the database, and knows (or learns) how to search it well enough to retrieve relevant abstracts, and then reverse address search missing ; before identifier meets
