Traditional Library Research vs. Internet Research (Paper #2)

There is a significant difference between traditional library research and research on the Internet using applications, such as Furl, Diigo, and Delicious. I'm sure that most people who have any sense of how to research on the Internet would agree that the Internet is a much easier and shorter process. Although it still does require a lot of searching through different articles to find exactly what you are looking for, it gives you the ability to do all of your research from sitting in one spot. When doing research in a library, you are forced to first find books that you are looking for, write down their locations, and then go searching for them through the aisles of the library. You must then gather them all up and read through them, trying to find relevant information. And then, to keep track of this information, you must either check the books out or make copies of the pages that interest you. When you use the Internet, it is much more convenient. You simply type in keywords or phrases and you are given numerous articles and sites that relate to your topic. When you find something that you want to save, you can use diigo, or other similar programs, to bookmark your article, in which it will save it for you so you can go back to it. You also have the ability to make comments about the article, or highlight important lines, which you can keep private or make public for other viewers. There are some programs, such as Zotero, that will even write the bibliography for you, as opposed to writing all of the information down by hand in a traditional library setting. Online programs, such as Zotero, can save a significant amount of time, especially if you hate doing bibliographies, such as myself. There is even the option of taking part in social bookmarking in which you can find articles related to your topic that others have already bookmarked and read their comments about them. You also have the convenience of having all of your information in one spot as well as being accessible, which can be very helpful when writing a research paper. As one can see, there are many advatages to searching on the internet, as opposed to in a traditional library setting.