Finding websites on the Internet

Your browser software has a built-in "Search" function in the same bar across the top where the "Back" and "Home" buttons are located; but librarians will often suggest that you use different tools, perhaps a directory called Librarians' Internet Index or a search engine like Google to hopefully find pages that will have useful (and perhaps current) information on the topic you are researching.

Anyone can add content to the Internet, so it is important to look at web pages more critically than you might look at a chapter in a book or an article in a periodical.  There are several things to consider when deciding if a particular web site is appropriate for your research.  Click on the underlined blue words at the end of this sentence to see a document intended to help you in Evaluating Internet Sources.

The Internet is a rich source of illustrations that can be added to reports or used as "visuals" during a speech.  When you go to the Google search engine's site, it assumes you want to search the Web, but you can click on the Images tab instead. Then type in a brief description of what you would like to find as a drawing or photograph. Use a variety of words to describe what you are hoping to find, for example,

            "felines OR cats OR kittens"

Read Google's "Image Search Help" for more specific details regarding copyright and mature content filters.

Go back to Help with Research

Move ahead to the next step, Evaluating Information