<p>"I'm at the library". My S is often at one of his university's many and brilliantly stocked libraries but, as far as I can tell, the library for him is more of a quiet haven to study rather than a repository of research materials. "At Penn State University, literature professor Michael Berube said jokingly that thanks to the Internet, he's had no reason to leave his desk since 2002."</p>
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Even as academics applaud what the Internet and digitization have done for research and classroom learning, some also express concern that it has changed the way students read.</p>
<p>With search engines able to scan millions of print sources for a single passage, a generation with an already short attention span is being encouraged to behave like literary "hunters," snatching up nuggets for classroom credit without necessarily benefiting from the rhythm and the flow of the entire written work.</p>
<p>Often, say some professors, students are unable to distinguish between what's credible and what's bogus as information needed for an assignment piles onto their screens.</p>
<p>The very way online information is accessed -- by jumping from one Web site to the next -- does little to encourage linear thought as is used when reading a book....</p>
<p>Such concerns are heard most often across the humanities, where professors in book-centric disciplines must convince young adults raised on Google that wandering the library stacks, and looking beyond the first plausible answer to a question, are key elements of learning....
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