Some Suggestions for Finding Good Web Information
The books and articles you access through the Library web site are generally considered scholarly and authoritative. However, you may want to expand your search beyond these licensed tools by using a search engine like Google or Yahoo.
The quality of the information available on the Internet varies widely. To make sure you find authoritative information when using these tools, try the following tips:
- Limit your search to .gov or .edu domainsUse the "advanced search" page to limit your search to .gov or .edu domains. This will ensure that your results are from government or university web sites, which are often more reliable than .com sites.
- Look up the author of the informationIf no author is listed, be suspicious! When authors are identified, look up the person or group on Google to determine if there might be authorial bias.
- Use Wikipedia with caution!Wikipedia lacks the formal review process that "real" encyclopedias have. If you use information from Wikipedia, be sure to include additional evidence from scholarly sources to support it.
Google Scholar Library Links
If you're already using Google Scholar, you can set your preferences to include links to full text articles when they are available in APU's collection. Here's how to set up Google Scholar to include APU's holdings:
- Go to the Google Scholar Preferences page.
- Look for the "Library Links" section.
- Type "APU" into the box, then click "Find Library."
- Check the box next to "Azusa Pacific University - Get This Item at APU."
- Click the "Save Preferences" button.
- Go back to the Google Scholar search page and search as usual.
Once you've set up APU library links, you will see a link that says "Get This Item at APU" whenever APU has a full text copy of an article you find in Google Scholar. Click the link, then follow the instructions in the Full Text Finder window to locate the article.
Enabling your Google Scholar preferences to include links to APU full text can save you money! Most Google Scholar results do not include free full text; rather they link to publisher sites that can charge you $20 or more to download the article. If APU has a copy of the article, you will be able to read it without an additional charge.