The Web and Research Papers

[Sloan, Bernie]

>
>There's an interesting op-ed piece in the new issue
>of the Chronicle of Higher Education. The article is
>titled "How the Web Destroys the Quality of Students'
>Research Papers", and is written by David
>Rothenberg, an associate professor of philosophy at
>the New Jersey Institute of Technology.  It's in the
>"Point of View" section (p. A44) of the 8/15/97 issue.
>
>Rothenberg bemoans students' use of Web resources
>as an easy and less-than-desirable way to gather 
>information for research papers. While part of his position
>is based on the usual arguments about the quality of
>resources found on the Web, he also notes that
>students seem to be using books less and less, in
>favor of readily available articles and other sources.
>
>While Rothenberg, as a professor, takes "much of the
>blame for the decline in the quality of student research"
>in his classes, he also assigns a portion of the blame
>to libraries. At one point he notes "Of course, you can't
>blame the students for ignoring books. When college
>libraries are diverting funds from books to computer
>technology that will be obsolete in two years at most, 
>they send a clear message to students: Don't read,
>just connect. Surf. Download. Cut and paste."
>
>He also states: "Libraries used to be repositories of
>words and ideas. Now they are seen as centers for
>the retrieval of information. Some of this information
>comes from other, bigger libraries, in the form of
>books that can take time to obtain through interlibrary
>loan. What happens to the many students...who
>scramble to write a paper the night before it's due?
>The computer screen, the gateway to the world
>sitting right on their desks, promises instant access--
>but actually offers only a pale, two-dimensional
>version of a real library."
>
>Bernie Sloan
>
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>Bernie Sloan
>Senior Library Information Systems Consultant
>University of Illinois Office for Planning & Budgeting
>338 Henry Administration Building
>506 S. Wright Street
>Urbana, IL  61801
>Phone:  217-333-4895
>Fax:       217-333-6355
>e-mail:    bernies at uillinois.edu
>
>