Search Engine vs. Research Database for College Research

Summary

The video script highlights the superiority of databases over search engines for research purposes. While both offer ease of search, databases provide controlled content, ensuring reliability. The web, in contrast, is a mixed bag of information, making it difficult to discern fact from opinion. Databases like Gale offer scholarly, edited documents, saving researchers time in evaluating the credibility of sources.

Takeaways

• 🔍 Databases share many positive attributes with search engines, such as ease of search, flexibility, and availability.
• 🌐 The web is a vast universe of information with both good and bad content, making it unpredictable in terms of accuracy.
• 🤔 When using the web for research, you don't know whether you're getting fact or opinion, which makes it unreliable for academic purposes.
• 👨‍🔬 Information found on the web could be produced by a scientist or by an unqualified person, making the source unclear.
• ⏳ While a web search is quick, evaluating the authority, bias, and currency of information takes significant time—up to 30 minutes or more.
• ✅ Databases, in contrast, provide controlled content, ensuring reliability and relevance for research purposes.
• 📚 Using databases like Gale, you get access to edited, published, and scholarly content such as newspaper, magazine, and journal articles.
• 🚫 Databases prevent access to content created by non-experts, such as your next-door neighbor, ensuring high-quality information.
• 💡 Databases save time for researchers by providing pre-evaluated, authoritative sources, making the research process more efficient.
• 🎓 For students, databases offer a reliable and time-saving resource, especially in academic research contexts.

Q & A

What are some advantages of databases over search engines in research?

Databases offer controlled content, which includes published, edited, scholarly, or substantive documents, such as newspaper articles, magazine articles, scholarly journal articles, and articles from reference books. This ensures the information is more reliable and less time-consuming to evaluate compared to the vast and unfiltered content available on the web.

Why is the web described as a 'big grab bag' in the context of research?

The web is referred to as a 'big grab bag' because it contains a mix of information, including facts, opinions, and content from various sources, such as scientists or neighbors. This unpredictability makes it difficult to know the quality and reliability of the information without extensive evaluation.

How does the content on the web differ from that found in databases like Gale?

Content on the web can be unverified and uncontrolled, coming from any source, whereas Gale databases provide a curated collection of scholarly and substantive documents, ensuring a higher standard of reliability and relevance for research purposes.

What kind of documents can one expect to find in Gale databases?

In Gale databases, one can expect to find published, edited scholarly documents, newspaper articles, magazine articles, scholarly journal articles, and articles from reference books, which are all vetted and of a higher quality than general web content.

How does the process of evaluating information from the web compare to that from databases in terms of time?

Evaluating information from the web can take 30 to 40 minutes or even an hour due to the need to assess authority, bias, and currency of the content. In contrast, databases like Gale have controlled content, which saves time as the information is pre-vetted and more reliable.

What is the relief provided by using databases for research according to the transcript?

Using databases provides relief by ensuring that the content is from reputable sources, thus saving time and reducing the effort required to verify the credibility of the information found during research.

Why might a researcher prefer using a database over the web for scholarly research?

A researcher might prefer using a database because it offers a controlled and reliable environment with scholarly and vetted content, which is crucial for scholarly research where the accuracy and authority of the information are paramount.

What is the potential time-saving benefit of using databases for research?

Using databases can save a significant amount of time as the content is pre-vetted and does not require the extensive evaluation process needed for web content, which includes assessing authority, bias, and currency.

How does the speaker characterize the difference between information found on the web and in databases?

The speaker characterizes the web as a vast and unpredictable source of information, while databases are described as having controlled and reliable content, making them superior for research purposes.

What are the potential drawbacks of relying solely on web search for research?

Relying solely on web search for research can lead to the inclusion of unreliable or biased information, and it requires additional time to evaluate the credibility of each source, which can be inefficient for research purposes.

What does the speaker suggest as a time-saving strategy for students doing research?

The speaker suggests using databases with controlled content, such as Gale databases, as a time-saving strategy for students conducting research, as it provides access to vetted and reliable information without the need for extensive evaluation.