As a professional writer, I must spend a few hours each day doing on-line research. Although I sometimes find this tedious, I take comfort in knowing that the depth and scope of research I can do in minutes using tools like Google would have taken me weeks back in the days when the printed page was the only way to get information. But the hidden value I want to share today lies in the reach we gain by having a simple Internet connection and a Browser. Prior to the Internet, I had only one reliable source of information: the nearest library. It may have been the school library, a public library, or a professional library maintained by my employer. On rare occasions when the need for special information justified the expense, I could subscribe to a research service that would locate information in a distant or foreign library, photocopy the pages and mail them to me. This was an expensive process and still could take a few days. The FAX machine made this process faster but no less expensive. Today, as I am writing this blog, I can enter a keyword or phrase in my Google search tool and within the blink of an eye, have a plethora of leads to the information I want. Of course, it takes some skill to find the right stuff but, for me, that is more fun than having to read hundreds of pages in books to get to the pay dirt. And that is the hidden value for me.
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