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Santa Monica College Library

Introduction to Research

This is a brief introduction to research in the Library, how to decide on a research topic, how to find relevant materials and how to cite them.

Finding Web Resources

Web resources are helpful if:

  • You need up-to-the minute news and information about current events, trends, and controversial topics. 
    • Example: Health care.
  • You need government publications such as reports, statistics or legislation.
    • Example: The latest unemployment figures.

Web resources may not be as helpful because:

  • Anyone can publish anything on the web, website information is frequently inaccurate or biased, and sometimes outdated.
  • Only a limited amount of scholarly information is available on the web for free.