ABSTRACT
The proliferation of online searching as well as its relative decline in cost has been both a boon and a bane for undergraduate use of journal literature. Preliminary working bibliographies for brief research papers can be constructed in a shorter period of time allowing more time for the creative, cognitive process which is the reason for the exercise in the first place. Dispersion of citations indicates a higher percent of the relative literature searched. However, the stationary level of the student’s familiarity with the subject at hand counteracts these benefits to a far greater degree than most might wish to admit. Lack of analytic selection from the citations produced by the search as well as initial errors in qualifying limitations placed on the search (such as period of publication, for example) further exacerbate this problem.
