Byron Johnson's response addresses a number of interesting and
challenging issues.
 
It is important to use libraries.  Internet is a useful source for
information.  There are many sources of data available to scholars.
 
I can only relate to these issues from personal experience.  As a
graduate student at Indiana University I spent all of my spare time during
the first six weeks of classes in the library, pulling every volume in my
subject area off the shelf and examining it.  By the end of my first
semester I knew the location and subject matter of every volume in 3
subject areas, and did not require the card catalog thereafter.
 
As a private conservator, I own a research library which consists of over
4,000 volumes in 14 subject areas, and subscribe to approx. 30
journals/newsletters.
 
I appreciate how difficult it is to keep in touch with all that is happening.
 
Ftp of files from internet communications are useful.  But they bear the
same relationship to scholarship as a quick telephone conversation, or an
extended talk over coffee or a beer.
 
There is knowledge, and there is information.
 
Information is important; it may answer an immediate need.  Knowledge
takes time and work.
 
My perception of internet is that it is a coffee break.  It is useful to
relax now and again, but research/scholarship take work.  If the
information is not important enough to make it your own, use the listserv.
 
Jack C. Thompson
Thompson Conservation Lab.
Portland, OR
 
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