Finding Answers, Part 1

When a student asks a stumpifying question mid-lecture, my first thought is generally, "Huh. I can't believe I haven't wondered that and looked it up by now."  My second thought is often, "I wonder why <insert name of student> didn't look that up him/her/zirself."  In some cases, it's likely that the question just dawned on that student in the midst of lecture and being in the very tech-free classroom that I insist upon, he/she/zie could not at that moment search for the answer and so decided to ask me.  In other cases, it might be that students aren't sure exactly how to go about finding such an answer (or it doesn't occur to them that they could).  Yes, the internet is a glorious treasure-trove of informational wonder ... but how does one parse the pile of links that inevitably result from Googling a topic?  Where else do people look?  Let's talk about this.  Let's talk about this in a series of related posts lest we all become completely overwhelmed.  

Credit for the knowledge I impart in this series goes to the following individuals, who have taught me pretty much all of what I know about informational research:  Yvonne Piper, R.N., M.L.I.S., Patricia Elzie, M.L.I.S., Joel Burton, M.A. and David Patterson, Ph.D.

Okay. So. I vote we start with The Googles.

by Hilariawesome

The default starting point for many folks when looking for answers on the interwebs is to high-tail it over to Google and enter their question/topic.  The upside to this is that these folks will then be deluged with links. The downside to this is ... well, that these folks will then be deluged with links.  Some of them may be informationally-dependable while others may not, and telling the difference can be challenging.  The order in which links fall on the response page says nothing for their informational reliability.  Folks who go the Google Route for answers have a bit of potential legwork ahead of them before they hit paydirt.

If you use Google (or another search engine) to find information, one way to decrease background noise is to be as specific as possible with your search terms.  For example, let's say I'm wondering if there is anatomical variation in biceps brachii muscles (known to many as "biceps"), so I have something on which to blame my poor ability to do biceps curls (sidenote: anyone else ponder this or is it just me?).  If I then head to Google and search using the terms "arm muscles," it's a pretty mixed bag - I get some sites that may have useful information (like anatomy resources) as well as links to fitness magazine sites and some advertisements.  If I make my search terms a bit more specific - "biceps" - then the results, while focused on a particular muscle, look quite similar.

If, however, I get more specific than that - "biceps anatomical variation" - suddenly my results look quite different.  My entire first page of results (except for Google's designated ad space) is a mix of scholarly articles, anatomy atlas references ... and of course there's always a link to a Wikipedia article.  By entering more, specific terms, one often gets a more targeted list of results.  Google Guide has a rather useful page that discusses this in more detail and provides examples. There are also fancy librarian-type search tricks one can use that are detailed in places such as this or presented as a tutorial here - if constructing Boolean search terms sounds like a hot way to spend an evening, this will be right up your alley.

Another option is to use Google Scholar, which searches only from scholarly articles, and if you so choose, patents and legal documents where appropriate.  Starting your search here narrows the sort of results you'll get right off the bat, which also helps to decrease the background noise of personal webpages and folks trying to sell you things. The potential downside is that the results you get may be less user-friendly (read: written for experts in a field for other experts in that field) than those you get from just-plain-Google.

That was long-winded.  High five if you made it all the way through.

In our next installment of Finding Answers, Your Humble Professor tackles how to evaluate the resources that show-up on that search results page.