ABSTRACT
The way that research is conducted clearly changes over time as technical and methodological procedures evolve. Thus traditional academic libraries are fast becoming multi-media information centres, reflected in the name change to ‘Learning Resources Centres’. The internet in particular is a new research resource which is changing the way information is located and delivered. What we know as the internet today started out in the 1970s and evolved in the 1980s from the need for computers at academic institutions to link up and communicate with each other, for the exchange of research data, for joint working on projects and so on. Thus the JANET (joint academic network) was born and soon it became possible to link up with academic and commercial computers in the USA, and elsewhere in Europe and the rest of the world. With the explosion of personal computing in the mid-and late 1980s, dial-up access to existing networks of mainframe computers, including the JANET system, through modems attached to the telephone system became more commonplace. In the twenty-first century, the internet today is a huge system of interconnecting networks of computers worldwide. Anybody with a personal computer and modem at home can sign up with an ISP (internet service provider) and access internet resources online. The internet provides the following facilities:
• Access to the world wide web (www) pages • Access to non-www information such as gopher information • Access to discussion and newsgroups • File transfer including downloading of software online (FTP) • Electronic mail (email).
