ABSTRACT

In your research and daily life, you may have primarily relied on Google as your primary search engine. This general search tool may have successfully fulfilled your information needs thus far. However, as you advance through your studies, you reach a stage in your education at which you are expected to find and report on substantive, scholarly research conducted by professionals in a field, and Google no longer suffices. The sources for this type of scholarly information are peer-reviewed journals, books published by academic and university presses, and formal reports issued by government agencies. But these are not the type of sources that are accessed in a basic Google search. Therefore, search engines like Google are usually inadequate for the tasks you will be expected to accomplish. So, if you can't “just Google it,” how do you conduct research at this new level? One answer is the library!