Darlington School: Private Boarding School in Georgia Subscription Databases: The GPS for Research
Darlington School: Private Boarding School in Rome, GA
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Subscription Databases: The GPS for Research

Melinda Holmes | November 17, 2015 | 386 views

I don’t know about you, but I love Google. I use it for my email, for my contacts, for creating documents in Google Drive and for searching for almost anything. Notice I say, ALMOST anything.

Google is not my favorite, nor my friend, when it comes to conducting research for papers or projects. Why do I say this? Well, to understand, you must consider the following analogy.

Let’s assume you are new to the Rome area and one of your friends gives you tickets to a concert at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. You’ve heard of this venue, but you’re not 100% positive how to get there. Unfortunately, you don’t have access to a GPS or any other electronic device or printed map to help you get there. So, you decide to try your luck, and you head to Atlanta using street signs to guide you along the way.

Once you get into the heart of Atlanta, you see billboards and additional street signs that are somewhat helpful, but you still find yourself aimlessly driving past many tall buildings on many streets named Peachtree. You stop to ask a pedestrian for instructions but you’re suspicious about the directions he has provided you, as you’re unsure if his is the most direct route. You finally stumble upon the Fox Theatre, but unfortunately, you’ve already missed 30 minutes of the show.

Now, let’s compare Google to this analogy. If you type in “Ancient Greece” into Google’s search field as you conduct research for a paper for your history class, you will literally find millions of hits on this topic. But you don’t have TIME to go through millions of hits. Your paper is due tomorrow. You need to find factual and accurate information right away. Compare this to our example of lots and lots of streets that you’d have to meander down to find what you are specifically looking for to include in your paper.

You’ll also see ads (or billboards) that may or may not have information that will help you or even throw you off course. Companies pay to have their ads included at the top of every search when you use Google, and these ads are often DISTRACTIONS to your search. And finally, you also have to know if the information you’re finding on Google is accurate and doesn’t have any BIAS. Many people post information on Google, so how can you know without studying each link if the information isn’t just an opinion, rather than a fact?

Just as you wouldn’t want to travel without a GPS today, you shouldn’t start your research using Google.

Start with Darlington’s subscription databases. Through our Library Services webpage, you have access to many databases that include factual, peer-reviewed, full-text articles. In addition, you will have more success finding appropriate resources for your papers and projects, and you will save yourself lots of time and frustration.

For more information about Darlington's library services department, call 706-236-0455 or contact me at meholmes@darlingtonschool.org.