Things
to always consider when using the Web for research:
Everything
is not on the Web!!
Anyone
can publish "information."
There
is no complete list of web sites. No search engine indexes
“… more than about 16% of the estimated size
of the publicly indexable web.” (http://wwwmetrics.com)
There
are no official organizers, catalogers, or evaluators.
Sites
constantly change; new sites are constantly created; and
sites often disappear.
What
kinds of resources will you find on the Internet?
Promotion
of an individual's or group's agenda.
Sales
and promotion of particular products.
Reliable
research information.
News,
sports, and other current information.
Remember,
searching the Web will give you very different results
than searching in an online database subscribed to by
Cook Library! (see Finding
Articles module)
Of
course, for your research, you will want to find the most
reliable information. Now we'll explore ways to find and
identify the good stuff and recognize the less reliable
web sites.
