Google the Library!

Find our books and articles using Google Scholar and Google Books.

Start with websites that have been evaluated by a experts.

• UWG Subject Guides include related websites that have been vetted by a librarian.
• There are a number of public sites that feature websites vetted by professionals.
  • AcademicInfo
  • Internet Public Library
  • Librarian's Internet Index
  • Infomine

The World Wide Web can be a terrific resource.  So why do your teachers hate the Internet so much?  The Internet's greatest feature is its greatest drawback: anyone can publish anything.  It is easy to publish without double-checking facts, to skew information, to lie.  When students do a quick Google search to find information, they may only use the first couple results without much thought to who created them and why.

To avoid using incorrect or malicious sites, be sure to evaluate each website you use. Consider the following:

1. Publisher. Who published it? Who hosts it?  Are they well established and reputable? Find an About Us page.
   
   1. Use alexa.com and whois.net to check the background of a web resource.
2. Author.  Who wrote it? Are they identified? What are their credentials?
3. Intended Purpose.  Why was the site created: to inform, to convince, to sell?
4. Intended Audience.  Who is it written for: students, children, professionals, etc?
   1. Use Google's link: search to find who links to that page.
5. Currency.  When was it published?  When was it lasted updated?  Is it frequently changed or updated?
6. Accuracy. How accurate is the information?  Does it make sense with what you already know? Do others agree?  Does it cite its sources?
7. Check the URL.
   1. Tildas (~) usually mean a personal page
   2. URL extensions tell you who published a site. (.edu=school, .gov=goverment site, .mil=military, etc)
   3. Country Codes tell you want country hosted the site. (.uk=United Kingdom, .ca=Canada, etc)

Google is an excellent tool, but it does have significant disadvantages.  Remember:

• Google is a private, for-profit company, making money via advertising.
  • The first sites you see may have paid to be there.
• Google returns lots of imprecise results, many times over a million sites.
• Google searches by popularity, not quality.
• Google's algorithm can be exploited by malicious people.
• Google only searches an estimated 1/500 of the available World Wide Web.
• Most Google Scholar articles cannot be accessed full-text without payment.
  • BUT we can access them full text via our subscriptions or interlibrary loan.