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[Avi Berkowitz/The Daily Pennsylvanian]

The library is talking about a pizza box advertising campaign. They're half kidding, but touting self-promotion and stretching for solutions is exactly the idea. It's the battle between Google and the library -- and Google just might be winning. "I had a senior history major in the other day asking how to use [library] research databases," Assistant Director for Research and Instructional Services at Van Pelt Library, Marjorie Hassen says. With four years of Ivy League college under his belt, not to mention a reading and writing intensive history major, "you'd think he would have done a lot of research before." Yet, throughout campus, students are capitalizing on what many believe to be the advantages of simple Internet searches. Google, Yahoo, Excite and the whole gang of user-friendly search engines offer immediate results, constant accessibility and, often, a substitute for a library visit. "I'll either do a Yahoo or a Google search" to begin researching, College sophomore Eva Harris explains. And while Harris packs off to the library when her searches prove unfruitful, she is not sure about others on campus. "I think most people use the Internet... and just cite Web pages," she says. "It's a hassle to look stuff up [at the library] and make photocopies." Professors and teaching assistants, for their part, are often aware of this student aversion. And some, like Robert Natalini -- a graduate student who is teaching History 168, The History of American Law -- construct assignments with just that student reluctance in mind. "All of these journals are in the library," Natalini explains of the readings needed to complete the papers for his class. And sometimes, this seemingly simple lesson -- go to the library -- is actually somewhat baffling to Internet-savvy students. "I've had students that it never occurred to them to go to the library," Natalini says. "They're short-changing themselves of the great resource there." And this phenomenon is not unique to Penn. Library research at universities nationwide has declined as the popularity of the Internet has risen. An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education points to similar trends at Cornell University. Specifically, Cornell students are reported to have used a declining number of scholarly materials for the past six years. Yet, the Penn library is not succumbing to these Internet trends without putting up a fight. They have a new brochure out -- complete with catchy graphics, fun font headlines and eye-grabbing colors -- entitled "Where's the Library?" as part of their campaign to entice student awareness. "We're trying to get people's attention," explains Sandra Kerbel, director of Library Public Services. She says attention-grabbing is necessary because Google and other standard Internet search engines often comprise a student's typical "comfort zone." But perhaps they should not feel so comfortable -- after all, the Internet abounds with pornography and, perhaps worse, unreliable sources. And although individual students all profess a proficiency in distinguishing the legitimate from the not, standard Internet searching can lead to trouble. "I definitely use Google a lot," College freshman Tim Howett says. "I think it's pretty easy to judge what's what." But "that's the thing we're always fighting," Kerbel laments of the perceived reliability of the Internet. Yet, slacking students are not alone in this debacle. Being able to distinguish the what's what of reliable information on the Internet "is a problem we all have in this age of online information," History Professor Kathleen Brown says. "It all kind of looks the same when it comes up on the screen." Thus, the library has undertaken the goal of easing students into the realm of academic research. Offering term paper help sessions, one-on-one appointments and how-to seminars, the library is teaching students how to take advantage of what they have to offer. Hassen tells of well-received trips to various Greek houses on campus, where library staff clarified the mysteries of research among the stacks. "We're pretty much open to anything," Hassen says of the library's varied attempts to expand student usage of the offered resources. However, they have a substantial task still ahead. "There are a lot of brilliant and energetic students who aren't fluent with these resources," English Professor Max Cavitch explains.

Nevertheless, library efforts may be beginning to pay off. College freshman Matt Dines attended an information session on library research as a part of one of his classes last fall. "I was in a writing class first semester," Dines explains, "so I have a whole protocol on how to research." But Dines considers his experience to be rather unique. "I don't think many people know how to research, so they end up using stuff from online," he says. "They may end up plagiarizing, whether they realize it or not." Plagiarism, long an academic concern, certainly has become easier and more common with the advent of the Internet. Indeed, those like Natalini are aware of the "expanding possibilities that the Internet provides for plagiarism." Ironically, the very vehicle that enables plagiarists world-wide is also a plagiarist's worst enemy. Plagiarism-fighting resources -- companies like Turnitin.com -- abound on the Web. Professors can submit papers to such sites, where they will be scanned for possibly plagiarized passages. Cavitch says he has "heard indirectly that some people use them" at Penn. In fact, both plagiarism and the desire to end it have become so popular that Turnitin.com signs on a new frustrated teacher every 20 seconds. "It seems to me that these kind of sites could be very useful," Natalini says. While Natalini maintains there "could be circumstances to use it," he personally prefers to devise involved assignments which cannot be boosted with a simple Google search. Cavitch, too, hesitates to resort to such systems. "Policing software -- that doesn't feel quite right to me," he says. "The solution is closer to home," he continues. "It lies in the relationship between teachers and students." Perhaps, it also lies in the relationship between students and the library. Knowing about the library, Cavitch says, will in "itself... energize the students to go back." But as Kebel explains, "the goal is to work on efficiency," a trip to the library may not even be necessary. The library also boasts a new user-friendly Web site which allows student access to a plethora of discipline-specific databases with only the input of a Penn Key. At least for those who know about it, the new Web site is receiving positive reviews. "The library Web page, in my experience, has always been very user friendly," College freshman Kevin Collins explains. "It's not hard to figure out on your own." In fact, for students who cannot figure it out on their own, Collins has only one question -- "How did you get into Penn in the first place?" Even for those who snuck in without research-savvy skills under their belts, the library is happy to accommodate. And with everything the library has to offer, it just may be worth a visit. As Cavitch warns -- "How horrible to become a senior only to realize what you've missed out on."

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