THE INTERNET AND LIBRARY

HIstorcally, the idea of the viith the \Isse

Intenet was conceived

the Sputnik on

laun hing of the first artificial earth satellite

Dwight Eisenhower a

19S7. In esponse, the US, under President Dwight

(ARPA) within

establish Us lead Science and

Technology application to the military. The organization aSsembied some

of American's most brilliant specialists, who developed

developed the United Siates

Several years later, ARPA beegan to

first successful satellite in 18 months.

need to establish the Advanced Research Project Agency

the Department of Defense (DOD) to

VIRTUAL

focus on computer networking and communications technology. In

1968 ARPA awarded a contract for the Internet.

for the development of the

The Internet or Net therefore, was launched in 1969 when the Us

funded a project that developed a nationai computer network called

Advanced Research Project Agency Network (ARPANET).

Concept of Internet and Virtual Library

The Internet is a large network that connects Smaller networks all over
the globe together (Oleary & O'Leary, 2004). Jain and Jain (2006)

describe Internet as an instantaneous and global messaging system, an

important infrastructure supporting an increasingly widespread

multidisciplinary community, consisting of students, scientists,

researchers, large corporations, non-profit organizations, government

agencies and individual consumers. O'Leary and O'leary describe the

internet as a highway in cyberspace that moves ideas and information.

Eyitayo cited in Bamidele (2010) define Internet as been made up of

milions of computers linked together around the world in such a Way

that information can be sent from any Computer to another, 24 hours a

day.

Virt

ilhis

yiS Creation of the Internet Ir has been described earler

n cS a libtary in which collections of books and other materials

stored in digital formats and accessed through computers. A virtual

Ncan be defined as an organized collection of digital informnation

sOUIces such as e-books, e-jounals, e-pamphlets, e-magazines,

resources

newspapers, etc. that

that are developed, hosted and maintained by

individuals, gOvernnments,

institutions, academic centres and establishments, etc, that are accessible

associations, agencies,
from any location on the globe over a network on the Internet.

libtary can

organizations,

Fig. 9: l/lustration of the Inennet

Resources and Services Available on the Internet and Virtual Library

Resources and services provided on the Internet and virtual librari

inexhaustible. Below are some of then:

are

1. Communication (e-maill: This is the most popular internet activity. It

provides the platform to compose and send mails to one or multiple

recipients at a time and to receive feed back immediately or at a later

time.

2. Intemet Conferencing: YoU can hold meetings and conferences with

many other participants in near and or remote locations around the

world, without having to change locations. Thus traveling and all

attendant risks and cost are greatly reduced. Teleconferencing

involves transmission of sound while video-conferencing is a more

advanced form, allowing participanis not only to hear but see each

other on the screen.

3. Ihtemnet Telephony You can place telephone calls

using intermet lacilities or to the commonly used mobile devices eg.

phone, IPad, etc.

4. EntertainmentNews YoU can search for

streaming,

and find music,, movies,

newspapers, magazines, Computer games, live concerts,

interactive live games, etc. on the internet. So many radio

and TV stations have web addresses where they can be accessed

eg BBC News, NTA News, AlT, Channels TV etc.

S. Intemer Shopping ybermalls or exist in cyberspace

can window-shop, search

where businesses are transacted daily. You

lor varieties of items; jewelries, electronics, wears, cosmeticsc

house-hold utensils, etc. bargain and make purchases online and

have the items delivered to you at your door step.

A Infommation Search: This is made very convenient by internet and

virtual libraries. You can access some of the World's largest librpr

directly through your computer and search for needed iteme rhr

their catalogue.

7. Education (e-leaming Varieties of courses can be registered for and

aken online, with various academic degrees in almost any discipline

8. News Group/Usenet This is an application which allowsS people to

share issUes of common interest or where experts can exchange

views, ideas and information. It is usually called electronic bulletin

board, discUssion grOup or Usenet The title of the newsgroup will

hopefully indicate the subject or area of interest for discussion.

Several newsgroups exist, e.g. the Nigerian Social Best Forum

(www.facebookcom) affords people to build friendship and post

pictures and videos of themselves, others, events and exchange ideas

9. Video CallVChat This is similar to internet telephony except that

beyond a voice calL. Video calls. involve a web cam, a video cameld

linked to a website, between the individual in the chat SO that both

can be seeing each other while the call lasts.

10.File Transfer: Sometimes, individuals or needs to

make data files or documents available Can be

transmitted through file transfer Over the internet. The File Transíer

organizations have

to others. This

Role of Internet and Virtual Library in Research

Research is about the most important aspect of human life that was

revolutionized by the Internet World development is hinged on research.

The internet and virtual libraries are tools of globalization. They have

facilitated access to wide range of data and information all over the

world. The internet and virtual libraries have made research easi , less

cumbersome, more qualitative and provided a global reach to research

results. Many professional journals are peer reviewed in form of e-books,

e-journals, e-archives, e-databases, etC. are made available and accessible

on the internet and virtual libraries.

The internet and virtual libraries enhance the research process through
provision of these and other services:

1. Webliographic Services: This is provision of access to different

websites which launch users to avalanche of information and

graphics. The World Wide Web is a networking arrangement with

global access to information. It is designed to distribute information

across computer networks in a system known as hypertext. In order

to access websites, Search engines are used to take one there. Several

search engines exist, such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, Msn, Ask gives,

Lycos, Web crawler, Alta Vista, Excite, Teoma, Northernlight, Infoseek,

Hot Bot, etc. However some of the items require subscription to fully

access them. The following websites however do not require

subscription:

Accoce to Vast Infommation Resources: Individuals, corporate

or9anizations and institutions have created websites which contain

wrieries of information on virtually every field of human interest A

casual search on the internet will draw millions of results on any

oiven subject. It is even argued that the Internet is over bloated with

information, making it cumbersome to retrieve relevant ones. Internet

contains information even on the most unlikely topics. Information

exists on sportsS and recreation, entertainment, weather, airline

booking, online stores and malls, global and countries news, the

stock market, business information and ideas, training and different

crafts etc. Very importantiy also current research on every academic

researchers to draw information and conduct their researches.

3. Publishing ofE-resources: The internet and virtual libraries has made

electronic resources for research to be readily and massively available

and accessible online. Notable among these are e-books and e-

journals. E-books are digital versions of a traditional printed book

designed to be read in a personal computer or an e-book reader.

The e-book reader is a software application designed for use in a

standard-sized computer or a book-sized computer solely as a

reading device. Reference books also exist on the internet. E-journals

are scholarly journals or intellectual magazines that can be accessed

via the internet E-journals like their manual counterparts contain rich

variety of professional information based on current research. While

Some e-journals have their print versions, others are online oniy.

4. Online Publishing Internet has made publishing of infomation

faster, easier and cheaper. It has provided opportunities for

individuals and groups to create and manage their own websites. The

software and hardware required to create websites have become

widely accessible and relatively easy to use. The implication of this

however, is that web browsers are exposed to sites run by pedophile

8rOups, terrorist organizations and other anti-social agencies.

Features of Virtual Library

The virtual library ensures the systematic development of the meane ..

collect, organize and store intormation and knowledge in digial forme

Such libraries provide access to virtual indexes, catalOgues and books

Chimah, Uhegbu and Nwokocha (20I) provide the features of virtual

libraries as follows:

They provide remote access to information over network;

They exist as a virtual, i.e. not as physical entity;

They give the illusion of access to large collection of information

than actually present through connections to other libraries;

They facilitate immediate and simultaneous access to information;

• They are distributive because, they can be accessed from anywhere,

anytime subject to restrictions that may be imposed by standards,

firewalls, and other infrastructure;

They are interactive and supports 2-way communication with tne

Users;

Iheir content is separable from media (unlike print documents); ano

Ihey exist as multimedia objects in the form of text, video, souno,

graphics and animations.