Finding information online
Word of caution
- Not all information online is valid
- Publication/institution: reliable? (Consider org’s agenda, sources used)
- Reliable domains: College, Gov’t (usually these are most reliable: .edu, .gov)
- Less consistently reliable: Organizations, Companies (.org, .com)
- If personal site or blog, check individual’s credentials
- Consider voice of information: opinion, unbiased report
Databases (private, for profit)
- Library offers several databases -- as do most journalism and professional institutions
- Best for news and law: Lexis/Nexis
- Others: EBSCOhost, JSTOR, ProQuest
Otherwise, Google it
- Will provide good contextual information:
- What are the standard texts on the subject?
- Who are the accepted experts?
- Timeline of subject evolution
- General searches may required additional considerations
- Narrowing results
on Google
- Phrase – “founder of information theory”
- Domain/site -- site:csuchico.edu | site:.edu | site:loc.gov
- The page cache -- the source code (HTML, CSS) recorded by Google's robot -- is searchable with cache:term
- Definition -- define:information theory
- Related information – related:lessig.org
- Page title – intitle:information theory
- Exclude mans terms – bass -fish
- Others: allintitle, allinurl, info, inurl -- more information
- Google Print allows access to printed material
- If material is in public domain, can view entirety; if copyrighted, only select material is available