When to use the Web

The web is a great resource, but only a fraction of the world's information is available for free online. Think of all the books, articles, reports and other materials that were published before the Web even existed. Most of those are not available online and may never be.

Sometimes, information is made available online for a charge. Many good quality information sources, such as scholarly journal articles, are only available online for a fee. The UGA Libraries pay for subscriptions to these journals so that you can access them without charge via GALILEO@UGA or Google Scholar.

The Web is good for:

• News, including very recent newspaper articles
• Information about government agencies, organizations, and other groups
• Facts (but be sure to evaluate their validity)
• Educational materials, e.g. class pages for colleges and schools; lesson plans for teachers
• Travel and culture
• Businesses
• Opinions/commentary (in blogs, for example)
• Personal pages
• Maps
• Images
  

The Web is often not so good for:

• Journal articles:
  • Search within GALILEO@UGA for quality online articles already paid for by the UGA Libraries.
  • Or use Google Scholar on our home page to search for journal articles. It will link you to the full text if we have access to it.
  • [see also...Researching from off-campus.]
• Full text books (there are some free books online, and you can get others through our E-Books page, but most books are still only in print format).
• Older newspaper articles

You can sometimes find:

• Government documents (although many are only accessible via GALILEO@UGA or in print)