But Internet has just began to exploit its incredible amount of possibilities as a network of communication and services and it is by the billions that people use the Internet for all types of uses and purposes. Some of them have already accumulated an infinite amount of experience and models; this is the case of education, specially regarding humanities, where, from the beginning, the so-called new technologies have always been yesterday's reform plans. Unsworth (2000)notices in this respect that the traditional scholarly fields that comprise the humanities have become increasingly involved with the information technology over the last decade -following, as always, the more advanced and better developed research centers (as CWRL in Austin, Texas)- till the point that a ‘humanities computing’ was established long ago as a discipline in its own right in the most prestigious universities everywhere.

                It is certainly true that, in its own way, Internet is of a democratic character, contributing to a more open  access to information and education. The other side of the coin is, however, and I agree with Tapscott (1998), that what he calls ‘digital divide’ is potentially producing a ‘further isolation of the young economic underclass from its more privileged cohort members’. The responsibility of governments and large institutions in the promotion of equality in this respect should be promoted.

            The fact of the matter is surely that Internet has a vital importance in the development of education and humanities because of the intrinsic characteristic of the medium. The humanities resources on the Internet are growing rapidly with  web’s virtual libraries such as Project Gutenberg, and Internet could be regarded as an incredibly extensive -but incredibly untidy- library, were users can exchange and have access to all kinds of texts such as electronic texts of classical literature, current periodicals or specialised journals, bibliographies, library indices, scholarly papers, literature reviews...

            As Rawlings (1991) points out, the Internet offers many and varied library advantages. This author highlights that ‘catalogues can be electronically updateable and computer generatable, making them easier, faster and cheaper to search, produce and update [...] Also the library can more easily refer readers to other books with similar subjects, tastes, or interests’.

            I would like to comment here that, in spite of the incredible advantages implied by the fact that users can read, see or listen to an infinite amount of information, it cannot be ignored that the Net also lacks of organisation (that is why we have previously referred to it as a vast but untidy library) and that the very non-linear nature of the hypertexts, among many other factors, contributes to this.

            This is precisely the main drawback when trying to develop research in general, literary research in particular. Despite of carefully selecting the sources and despite of restricting the search as much as possible, the quantity and the quality of information is so extensive that looking for bibliographic information can be a task as useful as frustrating. It is not an easy task to critically discriminate and evaluate so many different sources of information. As Tillman highlights ‘within the morass of networked data are both valuable nuggets and an incredible amount of junk [...] you need a systematic approach to evaluating the tools [...] and also a systematic approach to evaluating the document or the result that you receive as a result of your search’.

            Finally, it is well worth noting that, paradoxical thought it may seem, the Net also represents a valuable means to access to information outside its dominion. That is, thanks to the Net, we may know about the existence of certain works which are not available at the moment but that we can book in our nearest library or bookshop.

            Until now, we have been referring to the Internet as the major source of information these days, but Internet users do not irremediably have to play the role of consumers of information. On the contrary, everybody can contribute to the development of the Internet thanks to the publication of their own web sites. This is precisely the idea from which this project was born. We understand that we, as users, have the ethical obligation to contribute, not just to exploit, the resources the Net offers us. 

© a.r.e.a./Dr. Vicente Forés López

© Cristina Ortega Marcos

Universitat de València Press

Page mantained by Cristina Ortega Marcos

Created: 06/02/2005