Anna Walter’s Blog

vs.

What could be simpler than to type in a term into the search engine box and get more than a million entries on a specific topic?

The answer is: nothing…

You do NOT have to rush for the bus in order to get to the library.
You do NOT have to wait in front of the library because of the lunch break.
You do NOT have to excessively devour your ice cream just because you are not allowed to take it in.
You do NOT have to return back disappointed, because somebody else already borrowed the book you needed.
You do NOT even have to dress, to brush your teeth or to search for a pair of two fitting socks.

All you have to do is to switch on your computer, turn on your web browser and type in a word…
A one-word term just like “English” results into approximately 4.080.000.000 entries at Google.
So what is a library good for if we can get so much information just per one mouse click? I will try to answer this question at the end of this entry.

Well, by now we just considered the advantages of the net however we should not forget about its disadvantages, especially for our pupils.

1. Often, internet sources are not pre-evaluated, so we should teach our students how to determine credible sources according to its author, URL, the content of the entry, cited references and its dating.
   Possible tasks to train our students:
   • Give them four or five different URLs and let them discuss in groups whether these sites are appropriate or not.
   • Let your students have a research on a certain topic and ask them to comment on their sources.
2. Without the knowledge on how to use the internet efficiently, our kids can easily lose track on what they were searching for.

Let them make use of the Boolean logic and symbols by asking them questions on different topics, such as: When did the Californian Gold Rush started? Find out its exact dating! What was the first book, Walter Scott has ever written?

3. The third serious problem, we as future teachers have to face is “plagiarism”. Since information becomes easily available, pupils might tend to just copy and paste it without giving its reference which actually is a serious case of delinquency.

What we can do to counteract this trend is to confront our students with the consequences which will result from this criminal act.
We should make them aware of the fact that delinquents can easily be determined via special software’s and also according to the language style. So, if pupils are trapped, they will get into big trouble.

So, let us return to the question whether libraries are still up-to date or whether the internet bears enough information to completely replace them?
In my opinion, it is wrong to compare these sources to each other, since both the internet and the library have their pros and cons. Though libraries contain only a limited range of information, one can be sure that all of its books, magazines, CDs and other tools are pre-evaluated and thus definitely can be quoted. Libraries often have a range of different magazines and new publications which are updated regularly. So, why not browsing through reliable books and articles which can give some ideas on the research topic?

Last question: What do YOU think about the internet as a research tool and do YOU regard libraries as necessarily source to our pupils?