From: Joan Gundersen <joan_gundersen@csusm.edu>
All of us on the various H-Net lists can profit from the article "Finding
It On Your Own" by Joel Snyder which appeared in the magazine Internet
World (June 1995), pp. 89-90. Snyder is not a historian, rather a senior
partner in a firm specializing in telecommunications and information
technology. His article posits ten rules for finding information on the
internet: 1) "Don't Focus on a Single Information Source" 2) "Don't Be
Lazy" (i.e. bibliographic queries via E-Mail gets a lot of poor quality
information.) This is the area most abused on our lists. as Snyder says,
" If you look like you've done your homework and are trying to get answers
to some final questions, you're likely to get a better reception than if
it looks like you're too lazy to go to a library." I would add that the
bibliographies gathered via the lists are no better or worse than going to
the card catalog. They are equally incomplete and often include
tangential or questionable sources. 3) "Use the Right Tool for the Job"
(i.e. remember WWW, gopher, telnet, etc. access different parts of the
internet, and that some databases and indexes are not free, but come
through Compuserve. Quality goes down with each source omitted) 4) "Keep
Your Own Database" (i.e. keep your own records of where good material
resides on the internet) 5) "Change Your Perspective as You Search (i.e. use
good research skills and come at the question from several directions) 6) If
You Need to Ask for Help, Ask the Right Person (i.e. make sure you are on the
right list and consider asking a query privately to a specialist.) Note that
this requires some research FIRST. You have to know enough about a field to
know who ARE the specialists. 7) "Give It Some Time" ( i.e.The
mostknowledgeable people may not log on to lists or groups every day or week.)
I've noticed a tendency on our lists for people with minimal background in an
area to jump in to fill the void with tangential or partial
information. Often, if an area is not my specialty, I will refrain from
answering and wait to give those who DO know the field time to reply.
What surprises me is the willingness of those with even LESS familiarity
to jump right in and demonstrate their lack of familiarity with the
bibliography. His best line here is "If you are in a hurry, go to the
library - not the Internet." 8) "Be Critical" (i.e. There's lots of
garbage and misinformation floating around) 9) "Be Grateful" (i.e. If
people do provide help, thank them.) I would add CREDIT them! We need to cite
information as coming from the internet and those who helped supply it. 10)
Give Up, if Necessary (i.e. the Internet doesn't have all the answers, so
learn when to give up a search)
The quality of our conversations could be improved and the quantity of
messages decreased if we all could keep these rules in mind. Good lists
do not require many messages every day. It's time to treat this
wonderful new communication tool as just that, a tool, and not a new toy
we play with just because it is there. Joan Gundersen, CSU San Marcos
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End of H-WOMEN Digest - 1 Jun 1995 to 3 Jun 1995
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