Do You Still Need A Library Card?

Wired has a story
that admits all that
is free on the web is not all good. The story goes into Questia and
ebrary.com, 2 companies working to bring some
authority control to the web, for a fee of course.

\”The element that the Internet is missing most
is valuable, authoritative information,\” said Christopher
Warnock, CEO of ebrary.com. \”For a lot of students, if
information doesn\’t exist on the Internet, it doesn\’t
exist.\”

Wired has a story
that admits all that
is free on the web is not all good. The story goes into Questia and
ebrary.com, 2 companies working to bring some
authority control to the web, for a fee of course.

\”The element that the Internet is missing most
is valuable, authoritative information,\” said Christopher
Warnock, CEO of ebrary.com. \”For a lot of students, if
information doesn\’t exist on the Internet, it doesn\’t
exist.\”
More from Wired

While Questia\’s
subscription price still is undetermined, it will be
inexpensive relative to other fees that college students
are used to paying, such as cable television access,
Williams said.


\”We tried to price at a rate that virtually all students can
afford,\” Williams said. \”There are students who won\’t
be able to afford this. But they\’re relatively few.\”


But will students pay for pages of textbooks that are
available for free in a library or elsewhere on the Web?


\”That\’s the big question,\” said Dan O\’Brien, a senior
analyst for Forrester Research. \”People in general are
unwilling to pay for content on the Web, especially
college students.\”


While students might be willing to pay for such a
service as part of their tuition, asking students to pay
every time they want to use something may be a tough
sell, O\’Brien said. \”Students have been reluctant to
support that kind of model.\”