Chem1A: Internet Resources

 Library Databases

Internet Search Engines

Types of Information Retrieved

• Scholarly journal articles
• Popular magazine articles
• Newspaper articles
• Reference book articles (e.g., directories, encyclopedias)
• Books
• No sponsors or ads

• Few free scholarly journal articles, popular magazine articles, and books.
• Popular web sites (e.g., Wikipedia, Facebook)
• Commercial web sites (e.g., eBay, Amazon)
• Government, educational, and organizational web sites (e.g., Library of Congress, JSRCC)
• Current news & information (e.g., CNN)
• Email, chat (Gmail, AIM)
• Many sponsors and ads.

When to Use

• Best for college level research.
• When you need to find credible information quickly.

• Best for personal information needs including shopping and entertainment.
• When you have time to more carefully evaluate information found on the open web.

Creditability / Review Process

• Articles and books written by journalists or experts in a professional field.
• All material in database is evaluated for accuracy and credibility by subject experts and publishers.
• Reviewed and updated regularly.

•  Lack of control allows anybody to publish their opinions and ideas on the Internet.
• Not evaluated (for the most part). Need to more carefully evaluate web sites for bias, accuracy, and completeness.
• Many sites are not updated regularly and can become outdated.

• Most material remains in the database for a signicant length of time and can easily be retrieved again.
• Published content from journals, magazines, newspapers and books does not change.

• Website content can often change.
• Web pages and sites may disappear for a number of reasons.  You may not be able to retrieve the same content later.