• The Internet: Medium NOT Message
• Evaluation of Internet Resources
• Searching the Internet

The Internet: Medium NOT Message

The Internet is not a database. It is a conduit to a growing array of resources, each one at a different place, maintained by different people, for different purposes, and of differing quality.

It makes as much sense to ask "where on the highways can I find out about the U.S. Federal Budget" as it does to ask "where on the Internet can I find out about the U.S. Federal Budget." It is better to consider the question, "where can I find out about the U.S. Federal Budget" and then determine from experience where to find the best tool.

The Internet is at its best if you already know where you're going!

Evaluation of Internet Resources

Evaluating a resource on the Internet should be no different from evaluating any other resource. Evaluation criteria can include:

• Cost
• Durability
• Accessibility
• Convenience
• Provenance (source)

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Cost:

Downloading the entire text of The Federalist Papers may be free, but printing it all out might cost much more than the paperback version.

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Durability:

Remember, you don't control the availability of an Internet site. Can you trust that the online U.S. Federal Budget site you've identified will always be there? Is it a dynamic site that removes items regularly and replaces them with new ones?

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Accessibility:

If you're directing students to Internet sites, how much access does your institution give them?

Is this a web site that allows (and can handle) large numbers of users? The more popular a web site becomes, the less it tends to become accessible. In the libraries, we call this "the hell of success."

Many web servers allow only a certain number of people access at any one time. Beware of sending 30 people to the same site thinking they'll all easily get on. Some sites give preferential treatment to their own users (e.g., Universities) and restrict access during peak time periods to all others.

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Convenience:

The amount of full-text material on the Internet is growing. Just because "it's there" does not mean it makes sense to use the Internet to access it. Consider online dictionaries. You have two choices.

1. Pull your Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary off the shelf and look up the word "stercoraceous"

2. • Turn on your computer (2 minutes).
   • Connect to the Internet (2 minutes).
   • Fire up Netscape (1 minute).
   • Search www.yahoo.com for online dictionaries (3 minutes).
   • Look up the word "stercoraceous" (1 minute).

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Provenance:

What version of what item from what source?

For example, The Economic Report of the President 1997 can be found in its print format at the Thomas Jefferson Library here on the University of Missouri campus. The Government Printing Office has produced a version using the PDF file format, an electronic version which creates images of pages and page numbering, and retains the graphics (charts) of the print edition. UM-St. Louis has created a version using Hypertext Markup Language. There are versions which are text only with no graphics and no page numbering. Whom do you trust to not inadvertently modify the original text? What if there are revisions? Whose revised copy is authoritative?

Searching the Internet

Microsoft Corporation ran an advertising campaign for its Windows 95 operating system using Mick Jagger singing Start Me Up. For the Internet one could use another Mick Jagger anthem, You Can't Always Get What You Want (but if you try sometimes, you'll get what you need).

Experience has taught me that the Internet is an excellent tool when your searching needs are DIVERGENT rather than CONVERGENT.

• DIVERGENT

  You need classes of things, instead of a single object. A DIVERGENT query would be "I wonder what's available in the area of contemporary public policy isses, such as abortion or affirmative action?"

• CONVERGENT

  You're looking for a specific item. A CONVERGENT query would be "where can I find a copy of the Fiscal Year 1997 U.S. Federal Budget?"

Though you can find specific items on the Internet, it is a far more effective tool when used to accumulate arrays of resources, such as those you'll see by Marty Rochester later on.

http://www.umsl.edu/divisions/artscience/polisci/pshome.htm

Last Summer, UM-St. Louis presented an institute on using the Internet. I designed an area on the web specifically for exploring various search options:

http://www.umsl.edu/services/summer/netsourc/index.htm

Three useful tools that were developed were:

• Master Search Index Page
• Meta-Indexes
• SavvySearch