Eli Wise likes to tell this story — well, he does and he doesn’t. He likes it because it epitomizes the high-tech world in which we live today, and he doesn’t like it, because, well …
A friend of his called and said, “My son had a paper to write and I was able to help him get the information he needed, all on the computer, without ever going into a library!” The issue? Wise happens to be a librarian.
And the problem, he says, is that using only that one process “eliminates a bigger picture; it’s a narrow approach to a subject. The Internet is a fabulous tool, but it’s an undisciplined resource. It’s not accurate, it’s not authoritative — the primary partner is books.”
Paper could have been just fine
There are plenty of sources on the Internet that are authoratative and accurate. Without seeing the students paper I could not judge whether going to the library or not would have improved his paper. Plus we should distinguish the pay Internet from paid online databases. It is possible that the boy writing the paper used databases provided by the library or the state. Provided meaning paid for by the library or the state. Some states like Indiana have paid for all their citizens to access a pretty good collection of online resources. Inspire is what Indiana created to provide materials for it’s citizens.(See http://www.inspire.net/)
It is quite possible to write a stellar paper without ever touching a book. Want I don’t want to see is a professional historian trying to write something using only online resources. But a 4th grader with access to the correct tools can write a fine paper.