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Since the mid-1990s, the wiring of the U.S. college campus has had a dramatic effect on how students search for information. Much of the research that once was done in libraries can now be done in computer labs or college dorm room PCs. The unfortunate end result is that students increasingly cite popular Internet Web sites in the class papers instead of sources [i.e. print resources] found in the library.
Now a study by Cornell University librarians shows that many Internet World Wide Web (WWW) addresses, known as UR,L's (Uniform Resource Locators) that are cited in student term paper bibliographies are incorrect or refer to documents that no longer exist.
"A URL that doesn't work means the professor has no way to check the original document for plagiarism.", says Philip M. Davis, life sciences librarian at Cornell's Albert R. Mann Library.
Davis and Suzanne A. Cohen, reference service coordinator with Cornell's Martin Catherwood Library, studied the behavior...