Introduction

In this chapter we will discuss searching electronic sources and the Internet for information. Electronic sources, databases and the Internet make an enormous amount of information available, but unless you know how to find the information you need, it might as well not be there. To use electronic sources effectively you need to know how to search sources such as bibliographic databases to find the information you need. Each bibliographic database is constructed individually with sources specifically selected for the particular database and this leads to differences among them. Seemingly simple details can have a profound impact when you are trying to conduct a search. In this section, we will be discussing the most common techniques to search both databases and the Internet. However, you will need to read the online help or experiment on your own to discover which methods work for a particular database or for a particular search engine.

The Internet also differs from databases. There is no controlling body that checks information placed on the Internet. Anyone can place information on the Internet and people put information there for a variety of reasons - some to inform or share information with others, some to sell something and some to deliberately misinform. We have to be more wary when using information from the Internet than information from a library or database. It is therefore important to be able to evaluate information found on the Internet and some of the criteria for doing this will be discussed in this chapter.

We will first discuss searching databases and then searching the Internet. We will conclude with criteria for evaluating information from the Internet.

Formulating your query

When looking for information on a database or the Internet the challenge is to ask your question the right way, so that you don't end up either with too many or too few search results, or simply unable to locate the material that you need. As with most skills, practice makes perfect!

The purpose of a successful search is to find information to match your information need and the clearer you have identified and defined that need, the more likely it is that you will find information on it.