The glut of information that college kids face is more enormous than they realize. And they're not necessarily coming in with good tools for doing this research. Love says he often helps undergraduates refine and narrow searches that have retrieved too much material, or expand and target those that haven't found enough. Quality as well as quantity is at issue. Professor of biology Ken Boss, for example, has noticed a new pattern of scholarly citations in student papers.
Some people rely almost totally on the Web.
There's a lot of intellectual noise on the Web. But finding something easily doesn't mean it's the best source. The library has also been taking steps to empower its users electronically. Library patrons can now renew books, ask reference questions, and request interlibrary loans on-line. In some cases, to satisfy publishers' licensing requirements, the library restricts reserves' availability to its local area network or to a list of students registered in a course, whose Harvard ID numbers serve as passwords.