在網路盛行的今日，資訊爆增更甚於以往。我們所需要的不再是大量的資訊，而是透過有智慧地整理分析而得的資訊。網際網路是一個擁有大量有價值資訊的世界性網路。如今，已有許多電子參考書出現在網路上，使用者可以輕易地透過網路（如：Gopher，WWW）查詢到所需資訊。然而，這些參考工具本身仍有品質上的問題，今就網路上明尼蘇達大學圖書館及美國國會圖書館的電子參考書現況為例，以分析探討目前網路上參考資源整理的問題。
What the Internet age needs isn't more information. It needs information backed by intelligence. The Internet is a worldwide network carrying lots of valuable information. From now on, many electronic reference books have been developed to allow users to easily search information distributed through the Internet, like the Gopher. WWW. But serving as reference tools for library information services, they still have some quality problems. This study is to collect, analyse electronic reference tools from two cases' points (Library of University of Minnesota and Library of Congress) distributed over the Gopher servers around the Internet.
