The Internet, however, is no panacea for the information needs of engineers. If anything, it has made it more difficult to select the appropriate resources and evaluate search results to identify quality information. Quantity and ubiqui-tous access have not led to information quality, and professors and employers are beginning to take note. Employers are focusing on the need for the
integra-tion of “soft skills” such as writing, oral communicaintegra-tion, teamwork, and life-long learning into the engineer’s skill set. A key part of effective communica-tion and lifelong learning is informacommunica-tion literacy and being able to effectively and efficiently locate, process, and evaluate information to aid in research, problem solving, and learning.
The World Wide Web is fraught with opportunity and risk for engineers searching for information. Before the rise of the Web and online full-text doc-uments, it was easier for professors, students, employers, and employees to ascertain the quality of the information they found. Books and journal articles in corporate and university libraries are reviewed by other scholars and care-fully screened. On the Web, quality peer-reviewed content coexists with unre-liable and unverified content, biased information, and advertising in a primordial soup of information. Anyone can publish on the Internet, and at times it seems that everyone has. Add to that the fact that most libraries have made at least some of the materials they collect available on the Web and it can be difficult to discern quality information from misinformation.
Kari Boyd McBride and Ruth Dickstein (1) point to the potential of the Web as an information resource when they write
Some critics of the World Wide Web question its usefulness as a scholarly resource, especially for undergraduates, who may rely exclusively on it for their research. But the Web will continue to affect learning while serv-ing as a valuable research tool that students enjoy usserv-ing.
David Rothenberg (2) provides a more cynical view of the Web as a schol-arly resource when he writes
Search engines, with their half-baked algorithms, are closer to slot machines than to library catalogues. You throw your query to the wind, and who knows what will come back to you? Perhaps one in a thousand sites might actually help you. But it’s easy to be sidetracked or frustrated as you try to go through those Web pages one by one.
He goes on to write
The placelessness of the Web leads to an ethereal randomness of thought.
Gone are the pathways of logic and passion, the sense of the progress of argument. Chance holds sway, and it more often misses than hits.
Judgment must be taught, as well as the methods of exploration.
There are strong arguments on both sides. The reality is that the World Wide Web is a valuable research tool for engineers. The potential for exchanging, locating, and publishing engineering information on the Web is vast. However, its current organization, content, and search mechanisms warrant caution. Let us look at an example.
Lawrence Weschler’s book Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder (3) discusses the evolution of museums in the Western world. The book outlines their origins 300 or so years ago as personal collections developed in rich people’s homes.
These personal collections were the precursors of the modern museum. One
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modern example of these thematic personal museums that Weschler discusses is the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles. The museum highlights and exhibits unusual discoveries and technologies that stretch the imagination but are also meticulously researched and documented.
Each discovery or oddity is presented with the same type of scholarly doc-umentation, firsthand testimony, and scientific evidence. The similarities between the exhibits, the quality of the research and writing, and the manner in which each discovery is presented convinces the viewer that they must be real. The catch is that some of the discoveries and technologies are planted hoaxes, while others are absolutely true. The viewer cannot tell the real from the imagined because all of them are presented in the same manner with the same look and same detailed research to support the claims. The Museum of Jurassic Technology is an excellent analogy for the Web. Everything on the Web looks very similar at first glance. Items may even be presented in a scholarly looking manner, but it is difficult to be sure because the Web lacks peer review, quality control, and any discernable authority. It takes a careful and discerning mind to find quality information on the Web.
Once the need to carefully evaluate and filter Internet resources is under-stood, techniques for doing so must be learned. One common method for eval-uating information resources is CARDS. CARDS is an acronym for credibility, accuracy, relevancy, date, and source.
Credibility: Who is the source of the information? Is this a well-respected site for credible information? Is the author a professor, graduate researcher, or respected professional? Can you even find out who the author is and a list of their credentials? Any source worth trusting will list the name, contact information, affiliation, and title of the author.
Accuracy: Can you compare the information found on this site to other sources? Are there any obvious errors or statements that seem exaggerated or out of place? Can you verify any of the information the site provides?
Relevancy: Is the site relevant to your research project or problem? Does the site have a clearly defined scope and purpose? Who is the intended audience?
Date: Is the site up-to-date? Do the pages on the site have a lot of dead links?
Is there a date on the page that tells you when it was last updated?
Source: Does the page cite other print or electronic resources? Does the page have a bibliography?
No one system will work for every situation, but engineers must ask them-selves if a Web page is up-to-date, reliable, credible, and accurate before using any of its information. The CARDS method provides some simple steps engi-neers can use in evaluating information resources until they gain experience and their information literacy skills become more developed. One basic rule is to not use Web sites simply because they are more convenient. A Web site, like other resources, must add some value and provide quality information.