internet research
TRANSCRIPT
Things we’ll cover…
1. To Internet or not to Internet?
2. How to Google effectively
3. Evaluating websites and web content
4. Reliable web sources
5. Gathering information you’ll need to cite from the Internet
Do you Internet?
To Internet
• Official organization and institution pages
• Publically released reports and statistics
• News articles, videos, and commentary/ reviews
• Reliable open source scholarship
• Nonessential information or general knowledge information
Not to Internet
• Reference information (Wikipedia is a good place to start but not to finish)
• Scholarly articles
• Case studies
• Dissertations
• Pirated materials (e.g. ebooks, music, videos)
Know your Google
• Google does not vet results
• First page of results is not the most relevant or accurate• Google offers promotion
for paid and oft-visited sites
• Google guesses based on your search habits and others’ habits
• Log into library when using Google Scholar
Reading a URL
• Domains tell visitors a lot about the kind of information you’ll find on the websites
• Frequently used domains:• Com, or Net–commercial, paid-for sites that anyone can buy or
host
• Org—organization, for non-profits (i.e. charities, churches)• Expect that these sites have biased information either for/against a
cause
• Edu—educational, colleges & universities
• Gov—official US government site
• Mil—official US military site
• Country domains (.ca, .uk, etc.)—non-US sites use country codes in their domains many times, this does not make them “official” websites or representatives of the entire country
The CRAAP Test • Apply smart searching
techniques – the Internet can be overwhelming and often irrelevant, inaccurate, and inappropriate for your research
• Evaluate the websites you use - CRAAP test
• Ask yourself if it’s essential information and if it adds value to your work
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What can you trust?
• The Statistical Abstract of the United States
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Professional associations
• National and international organizations
• Open-access scholarly journal databases
• Digital archives for primary sources
What you’ll need to cite…
• Author names—sometimes not available, use organization name if you can
• Name of website and webpage—Not the same thing!
• Posted or published date—sometimes unavailable (n.d.)
• Date of access/ retrieval
Library @ North Campus
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Friday 7:30 a.m. 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m.
Sunday CLOSED
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library
Call us (305) 237-1183
Research Guide: http://libraryguides.mdc.edu/
resources
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Help • Visit the Reference Desk
• Call us at (305) 237-1183
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• Friday and Saturday:
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