1. Library Research … with or without research @ the ecdhs librarythe ecdhs library

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. Google Search Example: “ Global Warming ” www.google.ca

7. “Global Warming” ~47,000,000 pages (@ time slide created) Lots of sponsored links - $$$ factorsponsored links Wikipedia entry - $$$ factor Wikipedia Google News - $$$ factor Google News Charities - $$$ factor Charities Good (and poor / biased / outdated) information sources Goodpoorbiasedoutdated You must spend a lot of time assessing page content to assure quality information!

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

9. Online Databases … the time-saving solution!

10. Databases available to Drury: EBSCO Host – huge database; international focus EBSCO Host Gale Cengage – big database; Gale Cengage lots of Canadian Content SIRS (Social Issues Resource Series) – large; issue-based, American focus SIRS Home-use passwords available!

11. Databases Available 24/7 Online: … via the ECDHS Library Website Research Page Website Research Page

12. Thanks for viewing this tutorial presentation! Mr. R. Thomson © E.C. Drury H.S. 2011