<B>(Part II)

The Internet is often considered as a marvel. Marshall Mc Luhan, a communication theoretician foretold that humans will prefer computers instead of books. Currently, there are more than 50 million web sites on the Net, and no less than 817, 447 147 Web users ? the majority of whom being in Asia, Europe and North America respectively.

The World Wide Web provides an easy, rapid and cheap means of communication via email ? ?the undisputed killer application?, stimulates e-commerce, offers fast access to online newspapers and magazines, enables one to get tips and tricks and above all, contains a high volume of free information. Institutional websites in particular offer rich contents. The power of the Internet to bring together like-minded people through online forums and Listservs, i.e build ?communities of interest? such as professional groups in cyberspace irrespective of geographical boundary, creed, age, sex, nationality or social class is one of the greatest boons. (Allen & Retzlaff, 1998; Browne, 1998)

But the reverse of the coin is equally true. One of the popular misconceptions is that quality information is available freely on the Web. Free websites are individually maintained, do not facilitate aggregate searches and do not provide substantial archives of information. Retrieving high quality, current, authoritative information and archives simultaneously from hundreds of sources is possible only with value-added fee-based websites.

The trouble with free websites lies in ?the anarchy of the Internet ? every Webmaster is free to do what he or she wants.? (Bates, 1999). This lawlessness is responsible for the lack of consistency, standardization and quality of information on the free Web. In the light of his information seeking experience, a journalist described the Internet in the following words: ?The Web is in reality, just a subset of the wonders of intellectual discovery. It provides high volume, low grade information. In the great sea of human knowledge, the Web is like a coastal swamp, shallow and chaotic, full of debris and rotting matter, and often stagnant and murky? (White, 1998).

Although this statement may sound rather exaggerated, searching the Internet can often be quite time consuming and frustrating too ? especially when search results pop up a list containing thousands of outdated and irrelevant hits. The existence of numerous search engines, meta search tools and web directories may offset this to a certain extent. In short, it ? takes more than a browser to search the Web, it takes brains, the right tools, and tips... ? (Tweney, 1997).

Digitisation of books

Misuse of the Internet is also responsible for broken relationships, jobs losses, financial ruin and even suicide in British homes and universities. Psychologists now recognize Internet Addiction Syndrome (IAS) as a new illness that could ruin thousands of lives. In the USA, this phenomenon has led to the creation of the Centre for On-line Addiction by Prof. K. S. Young of Pittsburgh university. The first British research to examine the impact of the information superhighway on regular users has been conducted at the university of Glasgow. According to Dr P. Mishra, symptoms were psychosomatic: lack of concentration and tiredness.

The recent announcement by Google Inc. of its ambitious plan to digitize millions of books in collaboration with five renown American university and public libraries (Vise, 2004) with a view to ? unlock the wealth of information that is offline and bring it online, and make it searchable...? has sparked controversy among stakeholders regarding the desirability of making books available on the Web. Publishers view this as a threat to their sales whereas libraries consider it as a boon for their users.

In the United States, several institutions namely the University of Illinois, at Urbana Champaign, the Online Computer Center Library, and the Library of Congress are closely associated with digitization projects. Though still a costly venture, thousands of rare books, manuscripts and other documents are being scanned in and made accessible via the Net. This is creating a new interest in history. But the printed versions will never loose their pristine value. Similarly, in the case of online databases to which more and more libraries are subscribing today, books, reports and articles have necessarily to be downloaded and printed so as to be easily read and digested by end users.

Ibrahim RAMJAUN