Research isn’t a Google search

Says, Kathy Lee Berggren (a professor at Cornell University, teaches oral communication with a “heavy research component") in Research Methods ‘Beyond Google’

Burnt Out Adjunct has interesting reflection on this beyond the domain of Google, titled: “Google is not research.”:

"I would counsel against the fallacy of the lazy student. They seem, on the whole, eager to bridge the expectation divide (they expect open, accessible information). They do not expect to have to navigate the Byzantine fiefdoms of disciplined research. Naive and perhaps idealistic? Yes. But really, should research be as hard as it is?
Consider that you are not affiliated with a university/college. How do you go about finding the research/articles/data you need? Same set of steps confound the Freshman. The databases are not intuitive or well advertised? And why aren’t they all aggregated anyway? Why is it easier to order a pizza than to find a set of vetted articles on a given subject? And then we blame the student for not being able to navigate the labyrinth to find the gems?" Listen

RESEARCH: You go to the library and look in a biographical dictionary. Or you call up Google.com and then sort through the 410000+ references to him. ... The Craft of Research, Third Edition...

See on the same shelf:

• Making by Stealing of Un-cited (Recycled) in the Wiki Age: Role of Librarians?
• Who's tracking your health? Paging Dr. Internet
• Nine Free Apps Every Writer Should Consider
• "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

Ranking Chart Blog -- Library of a Librarian

A kind gesture of a business professional, Devry, has resulted in reviewing this blogosphere:

First line of this Review reads: "Librarians as knowledge masters” is a brief encyclopedia for librarians."

What Really is Benchmarking?

by Rana Sinha, Apr 10, 2008
Have you ever wondered what Benchmarking really means? Is it just management hype or jargon used by expensive consultants? Here is a short outline of Benchmarking as used in business organizations. ...

exxtract:

Different kinds of Benchmarking:
There are basically four different kinds of benchmarking:
>>Internal - Here benchmarking takes place inside an organisation, e.g. between departments or business units
>>Functional - Here benchmarking is done for similar processes within the same field or industry
>>Competitive - Benchmarking operations/processes and performance with competitors in the same field or market is conducted here
>>Generic - Here processes/operations and performance is compared between organisations of similar size in unrelated industries. continue reading