Locating: What do I already know? What do I still need to find out? Where can I find the information I need? What sources can I use? Have I asked for help from the Library?
Wikipedia is not the answer!
Goldfields Library Bendigo
Catherine McAuley College Catalogue
Once you have found the information you will need to know if it is accurate and or correct?
There are a number of points that you can look at when evaluating the information
Actually searching Google is pretty easy. Just type what you’re interested in finding into the search box on the Google web site or into your toolbar!
If you’re using a toolbar, as you type, you may see words begin to appear below the toolbar’s search box. These are suggestions that Google thinks may match what you’re interested in. Google calls this “Google Suggest” or “Autocomplete.” You can ignore the suggestions, but if one seems useful, select it to save some typing.
On Google itself, you’ll not only get suggestions but as you type, actual search results will begin to load:
Google Scholar is Google's academic search engine that searches across scholarly literature. It has extensive coverage, retrieving information from:
Google Scholar can be a good place to start a search, helping to:
"Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia project based on an openly editable model." - Wikipedia
This online encyclopedia is a collaborative, cooperative effort by volunteer writers to provide up-to-date information on any subject imaginable.
Wikipedia is one of the most popular reference websites online, with millions of visitors every month. There are more than 19 million articles and 82.000 active contributors.
Use Wikipedia but be careful :
use Wikipedia to become familiar with a topic or as a starting point for research
use Wikipedia to find more search terms or keywords for your research topic
maintain a level of scepticism when reading Wikipedia articles
Weaknesses of Wikipedia
1. Anyone can create, edit, or delete Wikipedia articles.
2. Wikipedia articles cannot be considered scholarly, because we know nothing about the contributors. [Definition of Scholarly Articles]
3. Articles are works-in-progress, meaning there are changes all the time to the information. When an article is first published, the information might go back and forth between viewpoints before achieving a neutral tone. Viewing the behind-the-scenes discussion can be a valuable way of learning about those varying perspectives.
4. Sometimes articles are vandalised, whether for fun, as a hoax, or because the subject is controversial.
5. The intended audience can vary-- some articles are written from a insider's view, with highly technical language, while some are written for a more general audience. This can be both frustrating and valuable depending on what you are looking for; either way it should be a warning sign that the information can be inconsistent.
