However, if this is to occur, Australian educators must be both world leaders in the use of this technology and providers of excellent quality education resources. The major advantage of using the Web is that it provides fast access to a large amount of information on an enormous range of topics. However, the very volume of information available raises problems with access to it. One can not assume that users of the Web are able to effectively search for information even though user-friendly search tools are available. For example, a majority of students undertaking ITC125 initially assumed that the more hits returned on a particular query indicated a good search result.
Many people utilise search engines as a first option to locate resources on the Net.
The organisation of material on the Web is critical for its effective use as a medium for teaching and learning. A Virtual Library is an alternative way to access information on the Web. A Virtual Library is an organised set of links to items on the Web including links not only to electronic books and journals but also to any kind of electronic material that has been published on the Web. More specifically, this includes text documents, software, images, audio, databases, newsgroups and other data repositories. The purpose of a Virtual Library is to enable users of a site to find relevant information, wherever it may reside on the network.