How the Library Research Class Impacted Me

What is the hardest thing about finding information and doing research on a topic for me personally?

                The hardest thing about finding information and doing research on a topic is finding good sources with a lot of information on the topic I am researching. There are many bad websites that offer false information that look very promising. They may trick you with their professional formatting, and lack of grammar mistakes. However, the information on the websites can be false. Therefore, you have to be careful to find good websites with credible creators. Additionally, there is the struggle to find websites with a lot of useful information on them. There are websites that may just touch over the subject without going into detail about it, so my job as a researcher would be trying to find a website that offers a great deal of information about my subject.

Did the Library Research Class help? How did it help you?

                I felt the Library Research Class helped me because our teacher introduced us to a lot of great databases, where I can find great information. She also went through, step by step, of how to use every single one of the databases. After going through the databases, I found them very helpful. I was able to find a lot of information that was accurate, and went into the subject I was researching very deeply.  Additionally, I learned more about plagiarism than I thought I would. I thought I was a pro at parenthetical citations, and not falling into the traps of plagiarism. However, I found that there were many different times of forms of plagiarism. It really surprised me that some forms of plagiarism such as making a mistake on a parenthetical citation would get a person the same consequences as a person who plagiarized in a worse way. I learned that some of the mistakes that people make while doing parenthetical references were mistakes I made, and it make me more self conscious about my writing. I now know to be more careful with giving credit to the author.

“Since everything is on the internet, I don’t need books….right?”

                It is true that the internet does contain a multitude of information; in fact, you can find anything on the internet. However, books contain many things that the internet doesn't such as always containing credible information, and having information from the minds of intellectuals from the past. There are many bad websites on the internet that can trick readers into thinking that the information from the website is accurate. They may fool readers by having fancy formatting, and using high level vocabulary. But after closely reading the information, readers can realize that it is absolute rubbish. However, with books, all of the information is correct because the authors are very credible. Books are published, which means that all of the information was edited and checked for accuracy. Also, books are usually written by highly qualified people such as professors, scientists, and professional writers. This means that the information in books is correct, and will contain high level insight on the subject that you are reading about. Additionally, books contain information that intellectuals wrote decades ago. For instance, there is nothing on the internet that could match the height of originality and language of Shakespeare’s books. The only way that we could gain such insight is by reading his books. Additionally, in more relatable terms, books written by professors will have much more insight on the subject, as they have had many years of studying the subject. There are many things that a professor could write about in a book that might not necessarily be found on the internet.

                However, I am not saying that the internet is totally unreliable. If you know how to properly use the internet to find good sources, then the internet can provide a lot of information to you. The internet can provide with information from many mediums such as blogs and websites. On the internet you can find good, accurate information about the information you want on education websites and government websites. You can have access to a never ending network of information on the internet, but you have to know you to find good sources in order for you to get the best out of it. In conclusion, both the internet and books are necessary in order to access information.