Information Skills for College

The Deconstruction of Google

ENG 112 Library Workshop 1

What will you learn about?

• Session I:

– Internet information sources

– Which are free sources

• Session II:

– Scholarly information sources

– Which are not free, library pays $$

Web in Numbers

625 Million (estimate as of Nov 2012, Wolfram Alpha)

75% of people never look beyond page 1 of results.

1 page of results has ~10-20 results.

So, how does Google decide which 20 of 255 M to show you on that single page?

How does

Google work?

(or go here: http://bit.ly/95x8FW)

How Does Google Work?

(Watch video to your left)

Links = votesBut all links ≠ equal

"When confronted with a list of results from Google, the average user (including myself until I read this article) tends to assume that the list is exhaustive. Not knowing that it isn't ... is equivalent to not having a choice. Depending on the quality of the search results, it can be said that I am being fed junk -- because I don't know I have other choices that Google filtered out.” – Eli Pariser

From the “Filter Bubble”

(Watch video to your left)

(or go here: http://bit.ly/hZSF78)

What can you do?

Some actionable, manageable steps to get started!

•Remain aware of how Google decides results•Use advanced search strategies to get around filters and to get to less-marketed content (like .edu, .gov, international websites, etc.)

What’s in a Name? (A lot!)

• .edu domain– educational site; from a U.S. college/university

• .org domain– organization/non-profit site; promote advocacy

• .com domain– commercial site; info on products for purchase

• .gov domain– government site; info from gov’s point of view

• others: .ca, .uk, .ru, .fr, .de (these are country codes)

Search Exercises

Download practice search exercises from Exercises & Prompts

page on this site.

Missed class? Definitely do these to

get ready for the research narrative

assignment

•Some websites may be considered scholarly, but most are not.

•The top websites returned in Google are almost never scholarly.

•How do you determine what is “scholarly”!?

•We’ll look at this in Library Workshop 2

In Our next Workshop:

For help with research ask your information coaches – Marymount librarians!

Walk-in Help: all the hours we are openE-mail: library@marymountcalifornia.eduPhone: 310-303-7260Text: (424) 241-2489