The Internet — A Threat or a Supplement to the Traditional Library?
Zenona Krupa
Abstract
This paper is based on empirical research on a group of 143 second–year and fourth–year students of Rzeszów University selected from three subject areas: Polish philology, history and mathematics, as well as 30 research workers — 10 persons from each above–mentioned field of study. The research used a poll questionnaire, and it was a pilot study for a bigger research project. The aim of the opinion poll is to show whether the Internet really will be a threat to traditional libraries, whether students and research workers will choose the traditional book or its electronic version and why, or whether the Internet will be only a supplement to the traditional library.
1. Introduction
The Internet has imperceptibly entered our life. It used to be the mass medium for initiates or researchers only. Now, it is present in almost every field of human activity [1].
- “At the turn of the twentieth and twenty–first century, it is difficult to meet a man, in civilised countries, remembering the world without the telephone or the radio. In a few dozen years the last witnesses of the origin of television will pass away. And the first generation of people who cannot imagine life without the Internet has already grown up. It has been able to create a virtual world, charming by its attractiveness. It has changed the way of living and reasoning of millions of people on every continent. Every day seems to confirm the explicit assumption made by the media and their forecast: what you cannot find on the Internet does not exist at all.” [2]
Still, uncritical enthusiasm for the new medium at its very beginning seems to have flagged a little. Critical remarks are directed at the Internet, and there are more and more sceptics, even among experts. In 1995, Umberto Eco noted:
- “Once upon a time, if I needed a bibliography on Norway and semiotics, I went to a library and probably found four items. I took notes and found other bibliographical references. Now with the Internet I can have 10,000 items. At this point I become paralysed. I simply have to choose another topic.” [3]
Ryszard Tadeusiewicz — a biocyberneticist and a computer scientist — expressed his negative opinion on the use of the Internet in science. His ability was precisely defining and presenting well–known opinions as the main disadvantages of the network. In his opinion:
- “the information is chaotically scattered and mixed up. And this makes it impossible to separate valuable sources from rubbish and fib. Informational smog dazzles, chokes, makes it difficult to get a good grasp and denies the chance of arriving safely at the quiet port of genuine learning.” [4]
The primary task of every library has always been to provide the reader with a source of information. Until recently it was mostly in the form of a book or a magazine. Nowadays, the most important things for library users are: quick service, full collection, quick information on the required material as well as getting access to world information resources. The Internet now offers the capability to find everything man has created and put on the network, and to get unlimited access to a huge amount of information resources. [5]
Will the younger generation of Poles, so fascinated with the Internet and called “the first screen generation” [6] by T. Goban–Klas, regard the image as an equal or even better resource, because it is simpler and more attractive than the book? Will they turn away from the service provided by the traditional library and sit down in front of the computer monitor to seek necessary information on the given subject? Still, perhaps there will be some conservative readers among them who will never give up that specific atmosphere of the library and will come there to read the traditional book with its shabby edges, yellowed pages and own history. Or will the Internet be, in the course of time, a supplement to the traditional library? I will try to answer the questions based on the results of my research.