Surely there is a lot of information stored in those resources, but the Internet lets you do so much more. For me, the Net is great because you can look up just about anything. Obscure information can be found on-line so easily because of the relative ease with which people can produce homepages. Unlike books or newspapers, the contents of a homepage are unedited and do not have to reach a large audience. Subjects can be as obscure as one guy's views on onion rings or a tribute to the Atari game Enduro.
People can write about whatever springs to mind and can include pictures of whatever they want.
Thus, users can find out about whatever interests them as long as one other person in the world shares their interest and takes the time to make a homepage. But the Internet is not just homepages. There are chatrooms where users can talk to complete strangers they would never be able to talk to otherwise. Certain distant radio stations can be listened to right through your computer. Software can be downloaded.