Search 6: Google

Unfortunately with all of the other search databases, I still relied heavily on Google and this was rather disappointing. Below is a brief overview of my experiences in Goggle. For any Google searches and articles (because you can get anything and everything in Google especially an unreliable search base such as the notorious “WIKIPEDIA”) there are a number of ways to determine if a sources is reliable.  They are:

• If it ends in an edu. the most likely linked to an educational institution.
• If it ends in a gov. the most likely linked to an government.
• If it ends in a org. then its most likey linked to an organisation.

Topic	Boolean Operator	Result	Conclusion
Information Literacy		11,300,000	This is way too many results to search through however, on a quick glance this search gave me a number of relevant resources. It showed a number of picture diagram models for this topic and lead me to a website from ALIA talking and defining Information Literacy as well as a website from Department of Education in Western Australia discussing about the skills needed to develop in all Australians.
“Information-Literacy”		2,700,0000	To get a more specific search result I am now going to put “Information-Literacy” in quotation marks hopefully this will narrow my search
“Information Literacy” Definition	AND	2,470, 000	To refine this search more I am going to add what I specifically need “information Literacy” definition which leads me to a number of specific resources, one called ‘Defining Information Literacy in the 21st world”.
“Information Literacy” Definition skills Models	AND AND AND	1,120,000	To narrow it down ever more I will add skills, models and definition.  This brings me to an exciting article about a DRAFT: Information Literacy framework as well as a number of other relevant sources that discussing the different models and their implications. It leads me to another website that is called SAUCE that looks at the different kind of models such as the Big 6, Research model and the Alberta model which I had previously talked about.

My reflection on Google:

I feel that I heavily based all my research with Google as this was a more familiar search engine and easier to use.  I feel rather disappointed that I have done this. Next time in my researching I will aim to use A+ Education more as these gave me reliable sources of information. Using Google does not give you reliable sources and you have to determine if they are or not.  I have come to realise that the other search engines are not as scary as I once thought.