More students nationwide are bypassing trips to the library and opting to conduct research online. However, though Eastern students are no exception to this trend, the reopening of Booth Library may be bringing students back into the library.

A study by Pew Internet and American Life surveyed 2,054 students at colleges including the University of Illinois is Champaign-Urbana, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois in Chicago, and showed that 73 percent of college students prefer to use the Internet rather than the library for class research.

Josh Ehrnwald, a graduate secondary education major, has worked in Booth Library technical services for three years and said he has noticed an increase in students passing the reference desk and heading for technology services where they can surf the Internet for information.

“They actually want to search for it on their own rather than going into the reference department,” he said. “Some things are easier to access here.”

Ehrnwald said the reference desk and technology services feed off one another, and students sometimes bounce back and forth, finding information from the reference desk and technology services. Because reference department computers do not have Internet access, many students stop at technology services first.

Students prefer electronic resources that can be easily printed out and require less time to acquire than searching through card catalogs, journals and other hard copy resources, he said.

Carol Lorber, head of the reference department, said searching the Internet can also be easier because students can search for results with less information than they would need in the reference department, and students are not restricted by the hours of the library if they have Internet access at home.

The increase of students using technology services and questions Ehrnwald has fielded over the telephone, suggests to him that students may be doing more research at home. He said many students call trying to access the library’s proxy server, which gives people access to all of Booth’s links and resources from their personal computers.

However, Lorber said when students are looking for more dependable and credible sources, the reference desk may prove a better resource.

The reference desk offers professionals who can help students find materials just as quickly as searching on the Internet. They have more experience and may know what students are looking for. In addition, he said reference materials are sometimes more reliable than Internet sources and some professors prefer them.

“You need to be careful with Web sources,” Lorber said. “(The reference desk) provides source that I think teachers are more interested in.”

As each generation becomes more familiar with the Internet, Lorber said the use of the it for research is likely to continue. However, the move back to Booth Library after being scattered on and off campus, may be putting a dent in the number of people doing Internet research from home. The locations in McAfee Gymnasium and Booth West were poorly lit and inconveniently located, and Lorber said he believed students may have preferred the comfortable setting of their home.

“It think its a much more pleasant place,” he said. “People are more comfortable with it than the other locations. I see more people using (the library) as the semester goes on.”

The consolidation to one building also helped.

“I think word has gotten around that we are all in one place now,” Ehrnwald said.

Fran Nelms, a senior early childhood education major, said she prefers to go to Booth Library now, but during renovations she did most of her research at home.

“You know if you can’t find something, you can always ask for help,” she said.