In the era of networked information, Internet, the largest worldwide network of networks, has emerged as the most powerful tool for an instant access to information. Information is now just a 'finger touch' distance away from the user and it would not be inappropriate to say that the Internet has become the biggest global digital information library which provides the fastest access to the right kind of information in nano-seconds of time to end-user at any time and at any place in the world. The Internet has become the most extensively used information source that empowers the average person to get in roaming with the latest information. Today's users can no longer depend on conventional information sources to cope with the latest developments in their respective fields.
The Internet has emerged as a powerful educational tool. With the increasing impact of information and communication technologies on higher education, all those concerned with higher education are attempting to grasp how ICT could help in modernizing the process of teaching, learning and research. With the advent of the Internet, following dilemma arise in higher educational system:
learner is not dependent on teacher for interaction; and teachers can give lectures virtually to unknown learners.
So, in this era, teachers and students can carry forward their work on the Internet in ways that are similar to and tightly intertwined with the traditional ways that they learn, teach and study in libraries, classrooms, laboratories, seminars, conferences, etc. The Internet can provide access to essentially unlimited resources of information not conventionally obtainable through other means.
Today, Engineering colleges are playing an important role in imparting technical education. The Engineers, who are the outcomes of these colleges, require the latest and pinpointed information in their respective fields. Due to the high cost of engineering information resources, developing countries cannot provide these resources to their users. But the Internet with its advantages, make the way for the developing countries to access information at a very low cost.
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