Issues in
Latin America
Internet vs. Databases
Benton Library Media Center
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

LET’S TRY GOOGLE!
google.com
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

EVALUATING INFORMATION
“Wrong” “Right”
Information Information
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

EVALUATING THE INTERNET
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Is the website backed by experts?
Can you determine the
authors of the website?
Is the website commerical
or non-commercial?
Image: “dot com” by Thomas Hawk via Flickr under a CC-license.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Is the information verifiable elsewhere?
Is the information
backed by sources?
Is the information
relevant to your topic?
Images: “IT everywhere #31” by Paul the Wine Guy via Flickr under a CC-license.
“Smack in the middle” by ogimogi via Flickr under a CC-license.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Is the information up-to-date?
Does the website
present new information?
Can you tell when the
information was published?
Images: “#1 New MacBook” by Mikael Miettinen via Flickr under a CC-license.
“2009-07-09 What Day Is It?” by RG of CS-taking a bit of a break via Flickr under a CC-license.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Is the information comprehensive?
Is there a clear bias
for a single viewpoint?
Is the information presented
objectively (when needed)?
Images: “Chain” by waffler via Flickr under a CC-license.
“Load or unload” by Pulpolux !!! via Flickr under a CC-license.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

HOW TO USE GOOGLE
ADVANCED SEARCH
google.com
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

WHAT IS A DATABASE?
search engine for printed publications
scholarly journals popular magazines
newspapers other content
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

DATABASES vs THE INTERNET
academic content varied content
VS
updated daily updated irregularly
VS
peer reviewing little or no reviewing
of articles of websites
PEER REVIEW
VS
Images: “049”, “Fresh from the Still”, “question mark ?”, “What ?” , “Question
mark” via Flickr, under a CC-license.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

bentonmediacenter.ning.com
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

NEED A PASSWORD?
usually either “sjsd” or “benton”
click on the image of keys
password to the file: bentonlibrary
Wednesday, October 28, 2009