Welcome to the Information Age.
Once upon a time, information was like a drop of water in the desert or dew on a leaf. Now it’s a firehose comin’ at ya!
This problem is evident when you, the unsuspecting student, sit down at a computer terminal and begin your search for books (let’s assume you want a book).
After typing a word, you are likely to get back books, video recordings, government documents, reference material and maybe a thesis or two. What to make of all of this?
Well, first of all you have to make sure that the book title you’re copying down onto your hand is really a book and not a different form of media. Check beneath the title and make sure that it’s here at the Sherrod Library.
I hear you say, what about this government document with the title that exactly describes what I am looking for? The truth is the utility of government documents depends on your project.
Sometimes government documents are the only source of information for statistics, detailed histories of government programs and sometimes even local history. Remember that government documents contain their own bias, which is pro-government of course, and are not a neutral source of information. In addition, government documents are not meant to be theoretical or literary tour-de-forces and you may be better off using books or journal articles in your paper.
Finally, not all books are of equal value to you. Choose more recently published books over those often hard to read, out of date works from many decades past.
Also, there is a certain species of academic book which is not really a book but a collection of essays edited by one or more professors.
Those essay collections may be useful to you, but be warned, they are often written about very specific problems and assume a great deal of knowledge on the part of the reader.

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