Library Research

…with or without

research @ the ecdhs library

Databases vs. Google

Databases:

Professionally published information

Identifiable authority Easy search

paramaters Quick access to

quality information

Google:

Much personally generated content

Questionable authority

Difficult to focus search

May take a long time to get quality information

Google

Offers the most popular search engine Has developed lots of other applications The most successful advertising

company in history Uses data mining & targeted advertising

based on user habits

Google Search Results

Results page lists links delivered in order of “Google authority,” affected by, amongst other things:

• Keyword frequency per page• Links to page from other sites• Profitability for Google

Google “Authority” Implications: Google good for quickly finding non-

controversial, authoritative sites(eg: a movie home page)

Google bad for quickly finding factual information on controversial topics(eg: Israel-Palestine conflict)

Skewed results towards “page spammers,” “content farmers,” and commercial / Google-owned sites

Google Search Example:

“Global Warming”

www.google.ca

“Global Warming”

~47,000,000 pages (@ time slide created) Lots of sponsored links - $$$ factor Wikipedia entry - $$$ factor Google News - $$$ factor Charities - $$$ factor Good (and poor / biased / outdated)

information sources

You must spend a lot of time assessingpage content to assure quality information!

Who wants to spend that much time trying to find good information?

Online Databases

…the time-saving solution!

Databases available to Drury:

EBSCO Host – huge database; international focus

Gale Cengage – big database;

lots of Canadian Content SIRS (Social Issues Resource Series) –

large; issue-based, American focus

Home-use passwords available!

Databases Available 24/7 Online:

… via the ECDHS Library Website Research Page

Thanks for viewing this tutorial presentation!

Mr. R. Thomson © E.C. Drury H.S. 2011