Those of you who know me know how frustrated I get when I see kids "Googling." I personally have nothing against Google. (In fact, thanks to them I have this blog!) I just do not think that a "Google" search is the best way to conduct academic research. Our students are not sophisticated searchers nor are many of them adept at evaluating a website.
If not Google, where do they go? Students should always begin research with our print resources and highly reliable (and expensive) subscription databases. (Our databases can be accessed electronically day or night, from home or school). If students still need further information, I would like to introduce them to a search engine created especially for students with information reviewed by information professionals. This search engine is called Sweet Search. Since all Sweet Search indexed websites do go through a prior review, you can feel confident that students are accessing highly reliable information that fits their research needs. I challenge you to try this with your next project and see what a difference it makes in the amount of time that students spend searching for information and the quality of information that they access.
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