GOOGLE VS. GEOREF: EFFECTIVE INFORMATION RETRIEVAL

The information seeking behavior of students has been drastically impacted by the growth of the Web and the use of search engines such as Google. The value of the Web search engine is undisputed, but more traditional information sources may often be bypassed by the student who is unaware of the wide range of specific targeted information tools that exist. Standard ‘Abstracting and Indexing Services’ have long provided organization and access to the various scientific disciplines and offer students a series of useful, but largely invisible, filters to the scientific literature. Google results from a search on ‘sea-level rise’ are compared with the results obtained through searching the primary geoscience bibliographic data base, GeoRef. Effective search strategies are examined on both systems and the methods used to explore the search process are presented. The types and quantity of information sources located are reviewed. While Google results provide a panorama of information sources, the GeoRef results reflect the published and often peer-reviewed literature. Some appropriate applications of both tools for information gathering are outlined.