A Comparative Study of use of the Library and the Internet as Sources of Information by Graduate Students in the University Of Ghana

1.0 INTRODUCTION Information is a vital and an indispensable component of any academic environment. It makes for effectiveness in any academic system. Both faculty and students need to use information daily in their various academic endeavors. For decades, faculty and students have actively used the library and its resources as their main information source. Alemna, (2000) states that for centuries libraries have served as repositories of information and knowledge that have provided the vital underpinnings for socio- economic, political and cultural development in any civilization. Their relationship with cultural progress has been so interdependent that it is needless to argue whether man's cultural advancement merely produces libraries as by product. According to Robinson (2006) simplistically, libraries and archives came into being to provide a central location for hard-to-find, scarce, expensive or unique material. Scarcity of information is the basis for the modern library. In countries where information continues to be scarce, a library's role is still unambiguous. In some countries where access to information is now akin to access to electricity or water, the reason to have freestanding storehouses of a subset of all information is harder to articulate. Libraries in such countries can provide access to more information than any user could want or need. Rangathan's rule "for every reader, his or her book," might be now redefined as "for every reader, huge amounts of free-floating content, anywhere, anytime. We now live in the information age where access to many Internet resources is just a few clicks away. The Internet is a technology, which has gained more popularity in many countries across the world and Ghana, is no exception. The Internet as a medium of communication and source of information has enabled students, researchers, business information seekers and information professionals to access information to enhance their work and communicate effectively. Robinson (2006) states that in 2004, seventy million American adults logged onto the Internet in a typical day. Over 95 percent of U.S. public libraries provided Internet access. Students, many faculty, and laypeople turn to online information sources before print or the library. As a result, library use, especially for walk-in reference questions and preparation for school and college reports has declined. 1.1 Statement of the Problem The University of Ghana has a number of libraries on its campus. The Balme library is the biggest and the central library of the University. In addition to the Balme library there are various departmental, school, institution and hall libraries on campus. The collections of these libraries are subject specific. Almost all the departments under the faculties and schools of the university have their own libraries. The University gained full Internet connectivity in the early part of 1998 to enhance the opportunities available to the academic community Alemna and Adanu, (2005). The Internet was not meant to do away with research in the library. Although the Internet has a lot of advantages, it cannot be compared with that of the traditional sources. Graduate students have adopted and continue to use the online information retrieval for their academic and research work at the expense of or without considering the importance and the quality of the traditional information centers as observed by the researcher. However, merely using the Internet was not guarantee quality and good information. Even though the Internet has large amount of information, the relevance, quality, and authenticity should not be neglected. The question to ask then is why do the graduate students continue or preferred using the Internet to the library as sources of information? Should the importance, quality, and authentic information derived from the library be relegated in place of the Internet? …