For example, electronic access has succeeded in opening the vast storehouse of information published by the United States Government. Despite rumors to the contrary, traditional forms of publication remain major and viable resources, and at the forefront of scholarly investigation. The publication of books designed specifically for college-level use has remained constant for almost twenty years. The volume of all academic books published increased some 22 percent over the past decade, and sales of books primarily aimed at higher education increased 8 percent during the last year alone. Publication of hard copy periodicals has remained constant for twenty years.
Expertise is too extreme.
There is no common body of knowledge, no common language. Technical and editorial standards, much like those applied to journals and books, should be created. Searching protocols should be standardized and applied uniformly across all, or most, search engines. Efforts directed at establishing some quality control of the Internet are emerging. The Association of Research Libraries, the American Library Association, and a small, but growing, contingency of concerned librarians is spearheading efforts to improve levels of Internet authenticity and reliability.