The Hunt Library is a wonderful tool when conducting scholarly research. Unfortunately over the past 8 years when someone is told they need to complete a research project instead of driving down to a local library to begin their research, they instead run to the nearest computer and type in the word “Google.” In 2004, Merriam-Webster added the word Google to their dictionary and defined it as a verb meaning, “to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web.” Reflecting back to when I first began writing papers and conducting research there was really no search engine to run to and the library (card catalogs) were what I used. Now as the times have changed I have become more conditioned to use search engines, as they are a fast way to gather information but I prefer to read only scholarly articles and avoid Wikipedia as much as possible due to the user-managed content and lack of authentication.
When you eliminate the internet’s plethora search engines and direct your attention to a search engine such as the Hunt Library you are able to search for more scholar based materials such as journal articles, publications, newspaper articles as well as reference materials. The information on sites such as the Hunt Library comes with unspoken guarantee that what you are reading is factual and knowledgeable.
I have provided an imagine to better describe how different a search on the Hunt Library looks in comparison to same search on Google. The term that was searched was “concepts in leadership” and the results are almost as polar opposites as the sites themselves.
Image 1 – The Hunt Library
Image 2 – Google
When you use Google the first 2 links you are provided with are related to someone’s personal blog writings, then 2 somewhat scholarly written documents but they are in PDF format so locating the source is almost impossible and then of course you are welcomed with the definition of Leadership described on none other than the Wikipedia website. The opposition to that is to examine Google against The Hunt Library when searching the same topic. When using the Hunt Library you are immediately given 2 journal articles discussing Concepts in Leadership Effectiveness and Leadership Concepts and Leadership Concepts then you have a publication, newspaper article and reference book all discussing concepts of leadership. Now not all of the material is going to be strictly focused on leadership because when using keyword searches the search engine is providing you with other options but at the minimum, you are given scholarly documents to begin your research.
When you define your searches to include specific topics you are more likely to receive a narrower return of results on either engine but a depth of credible knowledge on the Hunt Library’s site as opposed to Google. Now I do not want downgrade Google as a tool because it has revolutionized the way we search the web as opposed to 15 years ago when the internet was strictly a dial-up provided with a limited knowledge base but a library will always provide a more credible and reliable source when needing to contact scholarly searches.
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