In my time at CCSU i have had to write several research based papers and for every one I have searched online for sources. The internet is perhaps the most powerful communication tool that we have ever had. The amount of information available online is stupifying, and this information can be accessed by an enormous audience. So it is only natural that historians and others would use the internet to conduct research. In my own experience the internet has been extremely useful as a starting point whan beginning a research paper because it is so broad. Internet searches can giveme a broad overview of a topic very quickly. They can also provide me with a variety of more specialized sources, not just online but in analoge format as well. It can take a huge amount of information that would be overwhelming to me and focus it to the point that it becomes much more managable.
Without the internet, many of the sources i have looked at while doing research would be unavailable of prohibitively difficult to access. I took a look at the papers of the War Department Online. I was surprised by how easy it was to sift through their archives and find documents pertaining to a specific person or event. Without this online database i would not know how to access these documents much less how to find the one i was looking for. For instance, the War Department organizes their archives chronologically from 1781-1803. But you can also search for a person, and you will get all the documents affiliated with that particular person. Same thing with keyword. This accessability and organization are what make this online archive unique.
There are however certain disadvantages to using digital rather than analogue sources. Many people enjoy the “feel” of a physical source. I admit that this is a somewhat abstract complaint, but it is one that i sympathise with. Physical sources engage all five senses, you can feel the texture of the paper. You can look at it from different angles or get up close to observe details. Analogue sources are somewhat more engaging to me as i think they are to many historians.