The Best Information at Wake Is NOT Free
Information is free. Right?
Wrong.
The perception the Internet offers an inclusive atmosphere to discover information initially appears correct, as Google and Bing over a solution to seemingly every question. Google can answer any question!
Wrong.
I have increasingly become more distrustful of Google. Why? Google does not magically have the best possible solution to a proposed topic, but rather works off of an algorithm to ensure an answer is provided before a user can blink.
With a looming Annotate Bibliography due date for an International Politics class, I quickly Googled the Irish Republican Army at ten o’clock the night before the assignment was due. I found some unreliable Internet websites that by eleven o’clock seemed to fit the bill of what I was looking for in order to complete the assignment.
About three weeks later, when I returned to my ThinkPad to continue researching the Irish Republican Army , I found out, not surprisingly, four of my six sources, provided by Google, seemed ordinary, non-specific, and elementary. This would be perfect for my ten page Research Paper composing half of my grade! Not.
Suddenly a memory occurred. Wake Forest subscribes to major scholarly journals, and perhaps, by chance, they would have significant and noteworthy information on the Irish Republican Army, right? Yes!
A Z.S.R. Home Page Search and all of a sudden I was finding relevant information to the counter terrorism activities conducted by the British against the Irish Republican Army. I had hit the jackpot! I was reading information that was suitable to my topic, and suitable to my academic capability.
I regret not previously utilizing all the information resources offered by Wake Forest. I have been relying on mediocre information to carry me through in-depth analysis. Perhaps it was time to take credit for my academic capability and use it to my full advantage. As a student at Wake Forest, I’m lucky enough to have access to the documents, and to not utilize them is an insult to myself and the University. Why would they purchase subscriptions to elite academic journals if they didn’t think there students were capable of using them? I was doubting my ability to decipher scholarly information, and instead insulted myself and Wake Forest by using article found on the first page of Google.
From now on I vow to now longer use Google to conduct academic research. I feel certain after my success at navigating scholarly journal entries and scholarly eBooks, that I am capable of abandoning my immature Google ways. I can’t be the only student set in my naive search methods, and I encourage all students, nationwide, with access to scholarly journals to take full advantage of them. Not everybody is afforded the opportunity to utilize such information, and somebody is paying for it with the intention of it being used.
Disclaimer: I don’t mean to insult Google in any way! I just have discovered significantly better alternatives to finding information for scholarly pursuits.
