Web searching

This short guide aims to help you develop more critical and targeted approaches to using the Web to find literature for an assignment.

Well, you are not being asked to find fault or be negative. A critical approach is simply a mindset that will serve you well in life, work and study, and is very much part of the wider picture of having a methodical and thoughtful approach to your studies. You are naturally critical most of the time. You know that (some) newspaper reports only give half the story; that 'buy one get one free' in one supermarket is still more expensive than the straight price in another shop; that you'd watch a film one friend recommends and avoid someone else's recommendations. You make judgements and compare views.

All you've got to do is carry this over into your studies. You are not a sponge, soaking up knowledge, and squeezing it out in your assignments to prove you 'know' it. You entered college/university as a thoughtful and questioning person, and your course is an opportunity for you to develop these qualities in a new context.

(The information above was largely taken from an excellent book called 'Getting critical' written by Kate Williams.)

Almost anyone can publish on the web, and there is little control over what is put on it, meaning that what you find will be a mixture of both reliable and misleading information. You could find a huge number of results which lack subject focus or are irrelevant, the information could be opinionated or biased. It may also not be pitched at an appropriate level. It is therefore important that you consider carefully whether the information you find from an internet search is suitable for use in your work - whether it's going to gain you marks or lose them.

You will find the library guide below useful, it provides information to help you to evaluate the quality and appropriateness of sources found on the web. You don't need to learn or memorise the guide it is simply meant to provide 'food for thought'.

Evaluating web resources

Bear in mind that tutors when setting questions and assignments may Google the topic and look at the first few pages of results so they will be aware of the sources found via this route.

So, if you use the internet, be discriminating.

Did you know that Google has an Advanced Search option which can help you to find information more effectively and efficiently?

Take a look at the video guide below:

After viewing the video you may wish to experiment by doing your own search .. Google

• try limiting the search by file type to: .pdf

• try limiting the search to PowerPoint slides (.ppt) which offer a quick and easy way to get an overview of a topic or subject area. By definition they offer a concise bullet point presentation and can help you to decide which aspect of a topic to focus on. However, please be mindful of, and try to avoid Plagiarism.

• try limiting the search by site or domain to: .gov or .gov.uk etc.

Have you heard of Google Scholar? It is the academic version of Google and provides a simple way to broadly search the scholarly literature. A search may find books, articles and theses, but will not provide the full text of all the articles that you have found as a result of your search. However, the library subscribes or provides access to thousands of full text electronic journals/articles and you can set up a link to these from Google Scholar.

(If you have not used Google Scholar before, you can find it simply by typing the word 'scholar' into Google and the first result is usually a link to Google Scholar.)

Take a look at the video guide below:

You may wish to increase your access to research papers further by using: LibKey Nomad.

LibKey Nomad is a browser extension that provides instant links to full text articles as you do research on the web. It works with Brookes Library to find the fastest path to content across thousands of publisher websites. It takes 30 seconds to set up! It is currently available for Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Vivaldi and Safari.

To set it up - go to https://thirdiron.com/downloadnomad/

Then scroll down the page and click on the ‘Browser Icon’ for the browser you are using, eg in Chrome, click ‘Add to Chrome’ or 'Download' and select ‘Oxford Brookes University’ from the drop-down menu. There's a useful video showing how it works.
Please note that it may take a few seconds more for Safari users - after selecting the ‘Browser icon’ you would need to follow the instructions to install Nomad from the App Store before selecting ‘Oxford Brookes University’.

We hope you found this guide useful - thank you for your time.