GOVERMENT GRANTS FOR PROFIT COMPANIES

- Access to searchable databases and datasets. There are many sites on the Internet where you can search a collection of statistical data, such as demographic or social science data. While some databases on the Internet are fee-based, others are free.

- Access to government information. The U.S. federal government is one of the largest publishers in the world and it is utilizing the Internet as its preferred method for disseminating much of its information.

- Access to international information. Not only can you easily find official data from other countries by connecting to embassies, consulates, and foreign governmental sites, you can also search other countries' newspapers, discuss issues with citizens from around the world on the newsgroups, and locate Web sites established by individuals from other nations.

Other key benefits that the Internet brings to the researcher include:

- Speed. Doing a search on the Internet can take just seconds.

• - Timeliness. On the Internet you can find information that has just been made available a few minutes earlier.
• - Multimedia. The Internet delivers not just text, but graphics, audio, and video.
• - Hyperlinking. The ability to click between Web pages can facilitate an associative type of research, and make it easier to view citations and supporting data from a text.

On the downside, the Internet, despite its real and seemingly growing benefits to the researcher, still presents certain drawbacks. Among the most significant are:

• - Diverse collection of information. The Internet is truly a potpourri of information-that's one of its strengths, but it's also one of its weaknesses. On the Net you can come across everything from a scholarly paper published on particle physics to a 14-year-old's essay on her summer vacation; there are newswire feeds from respected press organizations like the AP and Reuters, as well as misinformation from a Holocaust denial group; there are commercials and advertisements, and there are scientific reports from the U.S. Department of Energy. All of this diversity makes it difficult to separate out and pinpoint just the type of information you want.

- Difficult to search effectively. A traditional electronic database that you might search in a library may take a little learning and practice, but once you get the hang of it, you can become an effective searcher. But on the Internet, even if you know all the ins and outs of searching, because of the built-in limitations of Internet search engines and the way Web pages are created, you'll only be able to search a small percentage of what's on the Net. You also won't be able to easily distinguish the valuable from the trivial pages; and you can obtain unpredictable results.