When I begin researching for a paper, my starting place
usually depends on what kind of class I am writing the paper for. Typically, if it is one of my math classes or
a science based class, I will start with “JStor” through the library
website. They have a vast amount of
scholarly articles on a wide variety of topics.
If the paper is for a philosophy or English paper, I typically start
with “google” to get ideas, and then I progress from there. Usually, the library resources I use are all
online.
In the
article "The Infodiet," by Steven Bell
was focused on the interface of the online library databases. Bell talked about how easy google is to use,
and how that draws the students to use it.
The term “infobesity” is used to compare the usage of google to search
for information to eating fast food; while using the library search engine was
like eating a salad. Bell says that
students are drawn to the fast food (e.g. google) when it would be more
“healthy” for them to eat salad (e.g. library).
Then the suggestion is given to “googlize” the library card
catalogs. The overall goal would be to
make the library card catalog’s interfaces more user-friendly, and as a result
students would be more inclined to use them as opposed to using google to do
research.
In the
second article “How Students Evaluate and Use Information in the Digital Age,”
by Alison Head and Michael Eisenberg, the authors speak on students abilities
to evaluate and apply their research to their classes and assignments. A few of the major findings included that
students are more likely to ask their family or friends about the validity of
information relative to asking instructors or librarians. Also that 84% of students surveyed for Head
and Eisenberg’s research said it was sometimes difficult getting started on a
research paper. They also found that
students were more likely to use google than a scholarly database to find
information for their research; which goes along with the point that Bell was
making in his article "The Infodiet."
Going a
long with my statement about my research process; if I am researching something
that does not require a heavy mathematical/scientific resource, then I am much
more likely to begin my research with a search on google. The interface is much easier to use, and you
are more likely to get a larger range of resources.
