January 1996: FirstSearch; Early Days at Winthrop; Library Challenges Report

Inside this Issue: Early DaysFaculty ReportDeLamater ElectedActive PeopleMajor Gift

A Hard Rain's AGonna Fall

The June issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education showcased as its cover story the blaring headlines, “Should the Internet Be Scrapped?” Did this surprise anyone? If it did, you must not have been paying attention. Over the last decade, the Internet, the Web—yes, yes, I know the terms are technically not synonymous but have become so in usage—has become increasingly useless as a scholarly tool. The CHE story discussed the obvious problems: spam, viruses, unreliable connections, not to mention unreliable information, disinformation and even misinformation.

“The True University of these Days Is a Collection of …” eBooks?!

We do live in interesting times, don’t we? This is especially true of those of us who spend most of our working lives in libraries. The last ten years have been so filled with change that it’s almost become a byword: if you don’t like something, just wait a few hours and it will change. This isn’t a complaint, just an observation.