The Internet, the World Wide Web, Library Web Browsers, and Library Web Servers

Zhou, Jian-Zhong, Information Technology and Libraries

This article first examines the difference between two very familiar and sometimes synonymous terms, the Internet and the Web. The article then explains the relationship between the Web's protocol HTTP and other high-level Internet protocols, such as Telnet and FTP, as well as provides a brief history of Web development. Next, the article analyzes the mechanism in which a Web browser (client) "talks" to a Web server on the Internet. Finally, the article studies the market growth for Web browsers and Web servers between 1993 and 1999. Two statistical sources were used in the Web market analysis: a survey conducted by the University of Delaware Libraries for the 122 members of the Association of Research Libraries, and the data for the entire Web industry from different Web survey agencies.

Many librarians are now dealing with the Internet and the Web on a daily basis. While the Web is sometimes synonymous with the Internet in many people's minds, the two terms are quite distinct, and they refer to different but related concepts in the modern computerized telecommunication system.

The Internet is nothing more than many small computer networks that have been wired together and allow electronic information to be sent from one network to the next around the world. A piece of data from Beijing, China may traverse more than a dozen networks while making its way to Washington, D.C. We can compare the Internet to the Great Wall of China, which was built in the Qin dynasty around the third century B.C. by connecting many existing short defense walls built by previous feudal states. The Great Wall not only served as a national defense system for ancient China, but also as a fast military communication system. A border alarm was raised by means of smoke signals by day, and beacon fires at night, ignited by burning a mixture of wolf dung, sulfur, and saltpeter. The alarm signal could be relayed over many beacon-fire towers from the western end of the Great …

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Publication information: Article title: The Internet, the World Wide Web, Library Web Browsers, and Library Web Servers. Contributors: Zhou, Jian-Zhong - Author. Journal title: Information Technology and Libraries. Volume: 19. Issue: 1 Publication date: March 2000. Page number: 50. © 1991 American Library Association. COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group.

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