Searching the Internet

Although an infinite amount of information is just a click away from us on the internet, there are a few precautions that should be taken when trusting the sources of this information. Chris Nolan, the assistant university librarian at Trinity, had plenty of valuable information to offer us during his presentation and I definitely learned some interesting and useful things about how to use the internet wisely as a student.

It was interesting to note that Google is used by 58.80% of the population in America, and I believe this search engine has the most user-friendly and reliable system. As a student, the main purpose of searching the internet is usually for research papers so although Google is useful in retrieving a broad range of websites on a particular search, it is unlikely that the necessary academic journal articles will be near the top of the search list. Websites that are found at the top of the list are usually the popular sites that are heavily cited and contain many links to other related websites. These websites are not usually trusted sources of information for academic purposes, so Google have provided us with the option of using Google Scholar. This search engine was specifically created to help students narrow down their topic search to academic sources alone. The Advanced Search option was also something that I was enlightened about; it has elaborate ways of narrowing your search, such as finding information within a specific domain or institution for example. This really helps to focus your searching into the specific area of interest and will more than likely result in more valuble research sources.

We were also informed on how to write information in the search bar more effectively by using the +, _ and " " signs to highlight, include or exclude specific aspects of your search. I never realized that this was possible, so knowing this useful shortcut now will definitely help save time searching the internet. Another interesting fact learned is that some webpages that Google have indexed can be viewed without having an active internet connection by selecting the "cached" link for the searched item. This feature further highlights the extent to which Google have gone to provide their clients with great internet searching options. Contrary to the general belief that sources such as the National Geographic Magazine and governmental websites are credible, these actually have to be dealt with carefully. Articles in National Geographic are most often written by a reporter, thus making the article a secondary, possibly distorted source and governmental websites may possess biases because of their political affiliation.

I felt that I definitely gained a lot of useful knowledge about using the Internet to enhance my academics at Trinity and have acquired more useful methods of searching information efficiently.