Gathering

When we talk about gathering we are refereeing to the act of research.  The topics of these readings were about Internet research.  Which today for most just means typing into google what every some one is looking for with a few search terms or a sentence in some cases.  But do most people actually know how to efficiently uses a search engine?  In my experiences the answer is no.

To better way to search is to use such terms as and, or, not.  Using these terms can make it possible to get more search results and get more specific sources.

The use of AND allows for each hit to contains both search terms. We retrieve records in which BOTH of the search terms are present.  This will yield much more hits than if just a space is used.  When using the word OR to link words this allows for the ability to get hits on things for two search terms.  Using or will allow for hits to have one term or the other search term in it not just hits with both terms.  Using the word NOT in a search term allows for you to search for one term while putting not in after that term will yield out whatever term is next in the search phrase.  This will allow for more specific searches.

The use of these terms is very simple but many do not understand this.  With these basic search skills it allows people to better use search engines.

After basic searching skills are acquired one must learn how to know if sites and information are reputable.  An easy way to do this is by looking at the web address to start.  .edu, .gov, and .gov are usually trust worthy resources.  While .coms cannot be trust worthy.  To better analyze if a site is trust worthy is if they have accurate information about there website.  Are they sponsored by an organization? When was the last update to the page? Is this information still relevant at this time?   And always cross-reference your information to ensure accuracy.

Other than basic web search one should also search databases, many of these are subscription based but are full of knowledge.  Here at UNCSA we have many of these databases provided to us by the library, I highly recommend the use of these sources.

In this growing tech based world we must learn how to find and analyze the wealth of information in front of us. If we do not we will be lost.