Google Crazy!
I know a lot of you default to Google when the library's resources aren't cutting it. That's cool, Google can unearth helpful stuff. But when can you trust a website drudged up by Google, and when should you be suspicious of it?
We have quite a few handouts on this topic, all taken from the Research Guides page:
1. Evaluating Information Found on the Web
Beware of web pages that a group, association, or agency does not govern. For example, a personal homepage should be trusted less than a section of the American Cancer Society's website.
Clink on the link above for questions you should ask about a webpage, such as: Who created this page? A group or an individual? What are their qualifications? Are they trying to sell you something? Does the url end with: .edu or .gov or .org or .com?
2. Google Scholar
Click on the link above to find out what Google Scholar is, what the limitations are, how to search it, etc.
Google Scholar is a nice academic alternative to regular Google. If you're on campus, in most cases you can easily link to the full text in one of the databases to which the library subscribes.
3. Getting Primary Sources from the Web
You can search the web specifically for primary sources, such as memoirs and documents from a particular historical period that have been digitized.
Click on the link above to see some guidelines and links to online archives of primary sources.
4. Using Web 2.0 Resources, such as blogs and wikis.
Click on the link above for tips on how to search for blogs, wikis, podcasts, videos; how to set up a RSS reader; and how to evaluate the content of a blog, wiki, etc.
This is especially helpful when you or a patron uses Wikipedia for information -- can you trust it? What is the scope? Who created it? What is the content?
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How do you decide if you can trust a webpage? What are some hilariously untrustworthy websites you've come across when attempting to do research? |
