FINDING GOLD AMONG THE GARBAGE:
A STUDENT’S GUIDE TO RESEARCHING
BOOKS, ARTICLES, AND THE INTERNET INTELLIGENTLY
--P.C. Kemeny--
(Click
here to see the entire guide in
Microsoft Word format.)
INTRODUCTION
In the Spring of 2002, I was
discussing with a student the topic of his research paper for an upper-level
elective religion course and asked him what he found using the American
Theological Library Association’s Religion Index One. The student had never
even heard of RIO. When I showed him how to access and search the electronic
database, he stood aghast that such a finding aid was readily available. I was
dumbfounded that he had never used it before. For he was arguably the best
student in the class. Equally troubling was the number of papers that I have
received over the past two years that rely uncritically upon sources found on
the Internet. To be sure, there is a great deal of useful information on the
web. But there is more garbage than gold. Just because some crackpot at
Pastor Paul’s Center for Theology and Cosmotology (don’t search the web
for it, I just made it up) has established a super slick website, complete
with video clips, interactive graphs, links to audio clips of his sermons, and
pictures of Pastor Paul and his charming family, it does not give Pastor Paul
any more intellectual credibility to comment authoritatively on the state of
religion in America today than the graying retiree passing out smiley faces to
children at Walmart. But some students, often in a last minute rush to find
something, anything to use for a paper click on the first hit on the Internet
search on Yahoo.com. Sadly, I was convinced of this truth this past fall
semester when a student in a desperate search for information on Islamic
eschatology drew almost exclusively from an “essay” on the personal website of
an ex-Catholic, born-again Christian, college drop-out, single-mother,
part-time legal secretary living in Milwaukee who has no formal education in
Islamic studies. Most students, I believe, desperately need a guide on how to
conduct research intelligently. Below is the working draft of a student’s
guide to researching books, articles, and the Internet intelligently.
The operative word here is “intelligently.” All college students have
researched a term paper at least once in their lives. But to do so
intelligently takes some guidance. Below is a step-by-step manual on how to
find and evaluate resources readily available in the library, through the
library’s electronic resources, and on the Internet.
To continue, click here or
use the navigation buttons on the left.
Note to users outside of Grove City College:
Because this research guide is written especially for Grove
City College students, many of the links are only available to those who have
access to the college’s computer network. However, the guidelines can still be
useful to non-Grove City College users by simply finding the same links on your
own local library’s website.
If you find something on this research guide particularly
confusing, please feel free to contact me through
email.
The guide is under construction and I welcome criticisms and suggestions. I
want to make it more user-friendly.