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| Yes | 65% | 94 votes | Total: 145 votes | |
| No | 35% | 51 votes |
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Add to Favorites"Reading maketh a man," so goes the old saying. And in today's world, society needs more than just a man; society needs a man who is accurate and trustworthy. It is unfortunate that sometimes things may be found in books that are not 100% accurate; but there is greater likelihood of inaccuracy on the Internet than in the published page.
A book goes through several stages before it is finally published. The rough draft by the author is usually read by colleagues and individuals in the field of interest. Attempts are made to get input from others as to form, content and purpose. The publishing house has to determine that it is meaningful, accurate, and achieves its intended goal. The editor reviews, revises and makes suggestions, and then it is published, sometimes in a limited volume to ascertain some kind of response from the public, or from the intended readership sector. All these acts are intended to validate the book and ensure that it is accurate. In some instances what is written in the book is an expansion of some idea first mentioned in a scholarly journal. This greatly increases its exposure and critical reviews. Because of these, a book, a journal article, the printed page in any form will have greater validity in any research.
Society is already aware that Wikipedia cannot be trusted. Not only can anyone add to its database of information, and to its individual articles, individuals have intentionally added false information to underscore the unreliability of wikippedia.org. False quotes and information have been attributed to well known individuals and have all turned out to be false.
There is more, however. Wikipedia is not the only suspect source of misinformation. Various sites, dedicated to religion and philosophy are also riddled with misinformation, incorrect information, and incomplete information. Unqualified individuals, in their zeal to do something meaningful have posted, published and disseminated falsehoods on the Internet. Because the Internet is such a wide open place, anyone can publish anything on the Internet. Once it hits the 'net it becomes public property, no longer subject to copyright laws that govern usability, authenticity and accuracy.
Part of the purpose of research, quite aside from amassing information, sharpening research skills, and improving writing, is to hone the mind to a powerful thinking machine. Academic rigor helps to promote and foster clarity and power of thought. Reading, and researching, and seeking, by investigative means, the accuracy of something is the only way to achieve this. Merely consulting the Internet because it has so many sites, or information so easily at the finger tips is helpful for helping to gather initial data. But the rigor, discipline and facts necessary to establish the work can only be got from direct printed, proven material.
Learn more about this author, Aleggs Sander.
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No
Students today are part of the internet age. Book only research was the mainstay of an era that is slowly departing. Life moves forward and so do the tools that perform the tasks we need, everything keeping in step with the technological advancements of the time.
The real argument concerning students using books versus using the internet for research is that information in hard print is perceived as being substantiated, more solid and supportable. The main difficulty with the mass of information on the internet is that while the data seems readily available, it is rarely footnoted with the source and can be of questionable reliability.
How does one find and determine accurate and true resources for their research that provides the sense of solidness a book represents? This is the core of what students need to learn and understand.
Robert Harris has written an article titled, Evaluating_internet_ resources . Condensed, the basic guidelines are below.
The CARS Checklist (Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, Support)
1. Credible: Is the source credible? Who is reporting the information?
2. Accuracy: Some information is timeless but most is dependant upon when it was created?
3. Reasonable: Is the information unbiased? Does it make sense?
4. Support: Are there statistics or a bibliography to back a claim?
In the days before the web, research was done the "old fashion way." If a book wasn't available on the subject being researched, a trip to the "stacks" was required to find a reference book under that subject of study. Searching was done by key term such as "heart disease" and under that subject were a list of magazines with their dates and issue. Next, aisles of magazines were wandered through, some bound in large books to hold a year's worth, and the magazine needed was located and pulled out. After finding the article, the student would visually peruse the pages optimistically hoping the desired information would be there. It was an extremely slow and tedious process.
Many types of research today would be difficult if not impossible if we relied on just books and did not use the internet. As pointed out in the CARS checklist, old information becomes un-useful and inaccurate especially if the topic is a contemporary one. By the time a book is published the information may already be out of date. Credible sources of current information in my field of healthcare, can be found using topic specific search engines such as "EBSCOhost" and "CINAHL which gather data from health/medical journals and reduce weeks of hunting to just a few hours.
Books will never be replaced as a primary source of reliable research. However, information today moves fast and books in print will become part of an era left behind much the way records have become CDs, film has become digital and square roots calculations are done entirely on a calculator instead of paper. What hopefully will not be lost is students' desire for real knowledge that is supported by good research instead of accepting something as true because it sounded true, was found on a cool website or was seen on "you tube."
Learn more about this author, Michele Blacksberg.
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