Sources jungle

Looking for sources when I have to do a research is never something simple. When I was younger, I used to spend hours and hours glancing through the pages of the books in the library near my home. It was a bit inconvenient since I needed to dress and go out, but there was a undeniable advantage: I never had to worry about soundness, since the fact that the library had decided to buy a specific book, it meant it was enough for me to trust it.

Nowadays things are different. I rarely look for my sources in the library if I'm not doing a particularly important research. I generally try to find what I need in the Internet.

The first thing I do is typing one or some key words in a search engine and then I start skimming over the first proposals it gives me. It's definitely not an easy pass; there are often plenty of results. After that, I generally read or take a look at the passages under the URLS which contain the terms I'm looking for. If I think a website could be useful or interesting I click on its URL ( and if I recognize the website address as belonging to an important magazine, a reliable organization or if I know the author, yes, all these things would be further guarantees for me).

Most of the times, I understand what type of website I'm dealing with, just looking at its layout and at how information is presented. I chose the websites in which the presentation of the topic I'm interested in is particularly detailed and preferably enriched by some useful links. In this way I can always find more information if I need and obtain further material for possible connected examinations.
However, I admit I look for the date in which the site has been last updated in few occasions; if I like it, I generally pay attention just to the contents.

The main difference between looking for sources in a library and in the Internet is the fact that the Internet provides us an incredible quantity of material, more than any library, but this virtual world is also full of rubbish and useless things. As a consequence, our views become wider by surfing the Web, but we run risks we wouldn't find on the dusty shelves of a library, where the worst thing that can happen to us, is not to find what we need.

I think that all the suggestions given by the University of Essex, Purdue’s Online Writing Lab and San Diego State University are good even if they obviously tend to repeat the same things. I do recognize it's very easy to fall into temptation, accepting whatever I find, especially if I'm not doing a very important work and search returns don't satisfy me very much. I'm a bit lazy, it's true... :)