With only two weeks of the semester left, many Boston University students are facing looming deadlines for final papers and say they prefer using online sources to conduct research over the university’s libraries.
Some university professors do not always specify how their students should research background information for papers assigned, allowing many students to opt for the ease and speed of the internet.
“I mostly use the internet to research because it is easily accessible and I can get the information fast,” College of Arts and Sciences freshman Jane Song said. “But if I need more thorough information, I go to the Mugar Library because it stores a wealth of information.”
Internet sources including Wikipedia and Google are among the most popular tools BU students said they use when researching for papers. However, Mugar Library is not ruled out entirely by students.
“Depending on the class, I go to Mugar Library or I Google things,” CAS sophomore Lowell Battles said. “For my writing class last semester, it was required to use book references. The class showed students how to … use online catalogs and books.”
With the recent surge in popularity, online sources are competing fiercely with books and libraries, leaving many wondering if libraries can keep up and continue to be useful tools for students and the public.
“The library has not seen any drop off in book circulation over the last 10 years,” Mugar Memorial Library Director Robert Hudson said. “It has remained steady at about 440,000.”
Mugar’s budget allocated approximately $9 million for the 2005-06 academic year. Hudson said this money is spent on books, periodicals and electronic resources.
“I would estimate that about 25 percent is spent on electronic services and resources,” Hudson said. “The libraries continue to have a strong demand for study space, so students are still coming into the facilities.”
Online and library research are by no means the only options for researching information, as students often go out of their way to obtain in-depth information for their writing.
“I once worked with a student who was taking a sociology class and was writing a paper about the homeless and decided to go out and conduct his own research in the field,” Writing Center tutor Eric Malczewski said.
As a writing tutor, Malczewski said he sees a wide range of papers assigned to students in all schools at BU. He notes that many of them tend to use online sources more than library sources.
“Some use journal articles from JSTOR, an online research tool that provides electronic access to a few hundred scholarly journals,” he said.
While the leniency of professors varies from class to class, some students say there are some basic guidelines that always apply when writing a paper.
“Cite sources and paraphrase,” College of Engineering freshman Roshan Kalghatgi said. “Make sure that you have an original idea along with a citation.”