What's Available Online
So where does Google fit in for finding facts? As you can see, many of the sources discussed above are available online, but not for free. They are databases that the library purchases subscriptions of for the UIS community. The exception are the statistical sources from the government -- these are free. So why not the others? Simple -- quality information costs money to compile and organize.
But the Web does have the answers to a lot of factual questions. You may end up with lots of different answers, and you then have to "be the editor" and determine which of the answers is the correct one. So which of the online sources are trustworthy ones? I have two suggestions:
Look for the official site of the organization, or "the horse's mouth." Want to know who won the Nobel Prize for Physics? Then look for the official Nobel Prize website. Google is usually quite good at giving you the official site within the top 10 results.
Use recommended online reference sources. Rather than wading through millions of results from Google, go with the tried and true. There are several directories to online resources, ones that have been hand-picked by librarians, such as:
|
