Can you remember what life was like before the Internet? I can ... but barely. I remember sending my first e-mail, and putting the entire message in the subject line, not knowing how it worked; the person to whom I was responding kindly phoned me up to explain it to me. I remember using Gopher, burrowing down through files and folders to see what was there. I recall a friend telling me about a new development that he thought would change everything, and it did; he was describing the World Wide Web and the browser that opened the door to just about everything.
Twenty years later, it's hard to imagine going through a day in the library without the Internet. Remember how involved it was to search through years' worth of abstracts, flipping from the index to the numbered entries? Remember how tiny the print was in the ISI citation indexes? For younger librarians, these are uphill-through-the-snow stories, but trust me: it was tough.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Blog U.: Thanks for the Internet (and Let's Make Sure We Keep It) - Library Babel Fish - Inside Higher Ed
Author: Barbara Fister
