Before Discussing Specific Library Research Tools ...
... Why Bother? Why Not Just Do A Quick Google Search?
For many students, good reasons exist, of course, for using the publicly available web as a means of locating resources for reports, research papers and other projects.
These reasons include the following:
- It's fast and easy; You can usually find something helpful; Many times, there are things easily available on the web that are not easily available elsewhere (for example, data sheets, product specifications, prices, and patents). There are excellent resources on the web, including some scholarly publications. The United States Government also publishes a great deal of material on the Web. There are also many trade journals and magazines available freely on the Web (advertising pays the bill for this). Information is delivered electronically so it can be reused and manipulated easily;
- It minimizes dependence on libraries (see John Lubans, Jr., Fall 2002, "Act or React? Leadership and the Internet," Library Administration & Management Vol. 16(4), pp. 208-210).
As a general rule of thumb -- most of your written work here at MSOE should be supported with creditable resources that are generally uncovered in library research, but that may also show up on the Web. Therefore, use a combination of library research and the Web. This combination of web and library research should help to make possible the creation of a professional, well-documented project report.
It is true that design projects do not necessarily entail publication in one of the professional journals, but keep in mind also that you may find yourself eventually publishing an article in the professional literature. As a matter of fact, the primary author in an article published in the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering below is an MSOE graduate!
Vol. 49, No. 9, September 2002 |
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In continuing to think about why it's important not to limit your supporting research to a quick search on Google, consider the following points.
The Web clearly can be very useful in research, but it is necessary to understand how to use it; it's also necessary to understand what is on the Web and -- more importantly -- what isn't on the Web. In order to do this, you need to know a few basic things about the Web.
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