Library Philosophy and Practice 2011
ISSN 1522-0222
Use of Internet by the Social
Science Faculty of Annamalai
University, Annamalainagar,
India
S. Thanuskodi
Dr. S. Ravi
Library & Information Science Wing, Directorate of Distance Education
Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar – 608 002
Introduction
Internet, computer-based worldwide information network. At the dawn of
information age, professionals are experiencing new vigor in field of information
collection, processing and retrieval. The internet considered as the electronic
mobile library in cyberspace provides an almost universal infrastructure for
accessing the information with almost global reach. The Internet is composed of a
large number of smaller interconnected networks called internets. These internets
may connect tens, hundreds, or thousands of computers, enabling them to share
information with each other and to share various resources, such as powerful
supercomputers and databases of information. During the 1990s the Internet has
grown tremendously in the number of people using it and the amount of
information contained on it. According to the Internet Society, a non-profit society
that studies and promotes the use of the Internet, 134 countries had full internet
connection and an additional 52 countries had limited access (for example, e-mail
only) in 1996. Surveys performed by International Data Corporation and Matrix
Information and Directory Services found that as of beginning of 21st Century there
were between 53 and 57 million users of the Internet worldwide.
Accessing the Internet
Access to the Internet falls into two broad categories: dedicated access and dial
up access with dedicated access, the computer is directly connected to the
Internet via a router, or the computer is part of a network linked to the Internet.
With dialup access, a computer connects to the Internet with a temporary
connection, generally over a telephone line using a modem – device that converts
the electrical signals from a computer into signals that can be transmitted over
traditional telephone lines. A modem is needed because computers are digital,
meaning that their signals are made up of discrete units, while most telephone
lines are analog, meaning that they carry signals that are continuous instead of
discrete. Once a signal has traveled over the telephone line, a second modem is
required at the other end of the line to reconvert the transmitted signals from
analog to digital. A great many companies, called Internet Service Providers
(ISPs), provide dial-up access to the Internet for a modest fee. Examples of ISPs
are America Online (AOL), the Microsoft Network (MSN), and CompuServe.