Have you ever wondered why anyone would choose to use library sources instead of internet sources for a project, or why a professor may require you to use library resources?
There are quite a few reasons why! Here are some:
- Many valuable sources aren't available for free (and we don't want that to limit you). Rather than having every member of the SUNY Oswego community go out and pay for books, articles, videos, etc. on their own, Penfield Library pays for resources once and then lets all our students, faculty, and staff use them. We can even get you materials from other libraries if we don't already have exactly what you need.
- It can be hard to know what to trust on the internet. You'll learn more about this later in this lesson, but finding something through the library increases the likelihood that you can trust a given source.
- Certain types of information are actually easier to find in a library than through Google. Most of what's easy to find and get full text of on the free parts of the internet is written for a pretty general audience. For college-level research, you'll find that you often need more in-depth sources that are written with a target audience of scholars and researchers. The library has a high concentration of scholarly sources that you can search in our catalog and databases, thus making your life easier!
So when should you run your searches through the library?
- When you found a source online but it wants you to pay for it. (Don't ever pay for it! Reach out to us instead.)
- When you need in-depth / scholarly information.
- When you aren't confident what sources you can trust.
- Anytime you want to!
