As I reflect on the information I have received in the past weeks
I realize what a large part reference information services have in everyday
information gatherings. I enjoyed learning
to search using the many library search engines such as using web search
engines such as LBCC Voyager. The
reference dictionaries, where highly detailed biographical searches can be
performed, were also excellent search tools to learn about. The governmental search engine, www.census.gov is very informative also. I found much more information such as
population growth and the average income of a particular geographical area, by
using this one website than performing a nongovernmental or nonacademic web
search such as commonly used Google or Yahoo.
As I compared how
much more effort is used when performing print searches for biographical
information it is much more efficient to use a web search engine such as the
many reference sources I have been exposed to through researching the last topics
covered in this library research class such as Who’s Who in America, as I have
mentioned before and Biography.com which shows birthdates, death dates, and
contains over 25,000 biographies of well known people.Sunday, March 25, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
LIB204 BLOG REFLECTION #5
BLOG REFLECTION #5
Since learning about the many resources for conducting
statistics and other geographical or biographical information searches, it
appears that library research tools would be better suited for performing a
more precise and faster search of certain desired information such as printed infromation. The ability to search for specific biographical information by the brief dictionarybiographical method or a more detailed name or occupational method could not beas easily performed using one of the more commonly used search engines such as Google or Yahoo. Usually, many site offerings would be offered by these search engines which would then have to be narrowed in scope to find the exact information needed.
After researching for a specific statistic or biographical subject,
a good way to determine if this information is correct is to cross check more
than one website offering the same information. Some cross checking of information could be performed by checking indexes which would show where a person might be found and the popular Who’s Who in America resource, to name two of many searches available. Other ways to check the validity of biographical resources would be to check the authority, frequency of updates and scope of information offered. When concerned about the accuracy of a web offering, I find a very informative website to detail what to use as a validating tool is:
http://www.law.siu.edu/lawlib/guides/eval.htm.
Finding the information needed for certain research is important and secondly verifying the resource information for accuracy should also be a major concern to the serious researcher.
Since learning about the many resources for conducting
statistics and other geographical or biographical information searches, it
appears that library research tools would be better suited for performing a
more precise and faster search of certain desired information such as printed infromation. The ability to search for specific biographical information by the brief dictionarybiographical method or a more detailed name or occupational method could not beas easily performed using one of the more commonly used search engines such as Google or Yahoo. Usually, many site offerings would be offered by these search engines which would then have to be narrowed in scope to find the exact information needed.
After researching for a specific statistic or biographical subject,
a good way to determine if this information is correct is to cross check more
than one website offering the same information. Some cross checking of information could be performed by checking indexes which would show where a person might be found and the popular Who’s Who in America resource, to name two of many searches available. Other ways to check the validity of biographical resources would be to check the authority, frequency of updates and scope of information offered. When concerned about the accuracy of a web offering, I find a very informative website to detail what to use as a validating tool is:
http://www.law.siu.edu/lawlib/guides/eval.htm.
Finding the information needed for certain research is important and secondly verifying the resource information for accuracy should also be a major concern to the serious researcher.
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