The Internet serves personal interests and awareness needs and educational purposes. It is a channel for communicating and a channel for finding things out. It is a way of learning. Internet access to the library is but one facet of the multiple approaches students now use to learn. What may have been an exclusive role for the library as information gatekeeper is now shared with bookmarked news and subject sites, search engines and other Internet sources.
Students use the Internet independently, without intermediation.
Because of the way the Internet is evolving -rapidly, dynamically, unpredictably planning is difficult. That said, there are more than a few motivational and directional clues to be found in present patterns of student use. For one thing, libraries ought to be shifting existing budgetary resources toward the technology and applications of the Internet. The library s web page is now central to the library s architecture. The design of that page ought to take into account what is working best on and and how students use the Internet.