A recent article in the USF student newspaper has caused me some anguish as a librarian.
The student author of the article has garbled the descriptions and blurred the lines between “the internet” and the databases the library licenses that are accessible via the internet. Since he mentions Gleeson Library, I felt a need to write about this and clarify the differences between the two.
As the author points out, use of the internet for academic research has limitations with regard to reliability, authenticity, credibility, and accessibility. However, he fails to point out that Google searching, use of Wikipedia and other such internet resources are entirely different from accessing licensed library databases on the web.
When professors tell students not to use internet sources in their research papers they mean, don’t do Google searches and then cite any old web page that is retrieved. They do not mean, don’t utilize authoritative and credible databases provided by the library via the internet. Those very databases are where students can search for scholarly journal articles, empirical research studies, opinion pieces and statistics — the very relevant and essential content needed in order to write a quality, university-level essay or research paper. Most of those articles are available full-text, in html or pdf format, and can be printed out in the library, computer lab or at home.
There are also many government and educational websites on the internet that can be used for writing papers at university.
Of course, from my perspective as a librarian, the most egregious omission in the article is the failure to mention the assistance students can (and should) request at their college or university library. Librarians come to work every day looking forward to assisting students in their quest for information. We are accessible in-person or online and we invite all USF students to Ask A Librarian.
