When gathering research for your paper or assignment, the Internet should be your last stop. The Web should not be your primary tool for gathering research. The library research that you do first is easily verified for validity, accuracy, and currency.
The information you will find on the Internet will be "hit or miss" in its validity. Keep in mind that anybody can put anything on the Internet and call it "research." The Internet is a self-publishing medium in that anybody with a small amount of technical skill and access to a host computer can publish what they choose.
The Internet serves as a source of mass amounts of information. If the topic exists, you will probably find something related to it on the Internet. However, some material on the Internet is not reliable and should not be included in your research.
Lesson 2 deals specifically with researching on the Internet and the issues involved when consulting the Web for Internet resources.