Finding Research Information, Essay Example

Nowadays students are exposed to enormous amounts of information whether on the library shelves or through online resources which are helpful in conducting researches, making analysis or completing any kind of assignment. Online research has become the most popular and most used one because of its simplicity, time-saving and information coverage. Such search engines as Google, Yahoo and Bing will definitely turn up a couple of sources on almost any topic at students’ request. But what causes a concern to many university lectures and professors is the fact that due to a heavy reliance on online search students are missing out on high-quality academic sources (Palfrey and Gasser 165). For that reason university online libraries were created to provide students with qualitative and reliable information whether in a book or article form almost in any field of professional interest.

In this paper we are going to explore Berkley College Online Library with the purpose of identifying existing databases and comparing specific tools and options they provide for the users. It is evident that student’s research is not simply finding an answer to the question. “It involves learning about the main issues in the particular area, getting to grips with the key works on the topic and identifying the central arguments” (Dochartaigh 2). What we are going to examine is whether the existing college databases are able to provide students with all the necessary information in order to conduct a credible, reliable and trustworthy research. To specify the exploration Business was chosen as the field of examination and the specific topic, for which information had been collected, was Enron Corporation.

When entering Berkley College Online Library database subject list and choosing the topic Business, one is presented with five possible databases, where information can be looked for. The Databases are the following: Business & Company Resource Center, Business Module (ProQuest), LexisNexis Academic, Personal & Business Forms and Regional Business News. Having conducted a search of information for Enron Corporation in each of the five databases, I have come up with certain observations and conclusions. First of all, let us consider the navigation aspect of the provided databases. The easiest database to navigate was Business & Company Resource Center as it presented a simple search bar where the name of the search item had to be typed in and one of the three fields of search – company, industry description or article – had to be chosen. ProQuest, LexisNexis Academic and Regional Business News were considerably the same in navigation and all of the three were quiet different and somewhat more complicated than Business & Company Resource Center. Apart from entering the research item name, the databases provided the option of identifying search specifications which included date, type of publication or document format, which at times seemed confusing, but, in the end, however, helpful. As for me, Personal & Business Forms database was the most challenging in navigation as at the entrance it presented a list of subject topics to choose from. Surprisingly, none of the topics specifically identified business so it took some time to figure out which of the topics would be able to provide all the necessary information on Enron Corporation.

Speaking about the results of the search, I can definitely state that most of them were relevant and informative; however, there were a couple of results that I would personally consider confusing and perplexing. Choosing the company field of search in Business & Company Resource Center database enabled me to receive just 10 results on the company profiles, one of which was of the Enron Creditors Recovery Corporation – the name Enron was given after the company’s bankruptcy in 2002 (Fox 4)- whereas the others were of the variant names of acquired, associated or merger companies. A simple click on the news/magazines flap enabled me to access all the available press articles where the name Enron was mentioned. All in all, this particular database provided a satisfactory amount of research information understandable for the user, however, the amount of information was still incompatible with 11071 and 999 results provided by ProQuest and LexisNexis Academic respectively. What I personally find the most successful and helpful features of both of the above-mentioned databases is that they allow, apart from showing company directions and profiles, to chose particular fields of the acquired results, that is to chose specifically  the ones from TV and radio stations, magazines, newspapers, books, report, scholarly journals or blogs. However, not all the results of such searches were understandable at first, as they presented mostly the titles of the reports or articles, from which it was not clear what connection they had with Enron specifically. Nevertheless, those two databases provided the most possible volume of information from various fields of interest which would enable the student to come up with the sufficient background for a qualitative and credible research. Regional Business News database was not as successful in providing the search information as the above mentioned ones. Judging from the name of the database one could only acquire news articles that mentioned the name Enron, however, no company’s details or profiles were to be found. Finally, Personal & Business Forms database turned out to be the most unsuccessful one. Providing the user only with search topics on history, health and geography, the database made it only possible to find some articles where Enron was mentioned. On the whole, in my opinion, it would be impossible to complete any type of assignment on this particular topic with the help of such a database because of the lack of qualitative sources or any other relevant resources.

When comparing specific search tools and options of the presented databases, I should again mention that ProQuest, LexisNexis Academic and Regional Business News were on the top of the list. Not only did they allow to chose date of the publication, type of the document or author’s name, but also provided an option of finding the search results when the search item was accompanied by the associated word as for example Enron Corp. and Bankruptcy or excluding results from particular areas. As far as I can judge, all of the presented tools would be of a great help for the user in coming up with the sources and fields that are of the most interest when conducting a research.

All in all, after having got acquainted with the available online library databases I can conclude that the electronic resources of information are very helpful and time-saving in conducting any kind of research. When thoughtfully and carefully reviewed, such sources “can be useful in acquainting the researcher with an array of theories and empirical studies bearing on the intended topic” (Thomas 73). The most important aspect to remember here is that not all online information can be trusted or used as a legitimate evidence for the research study. So, when choosing the database references to support one’s argument it is essential to keep in mind that a lot of search-related reading and analysis are required in order to be able to distinguish truly helpful and reliable information from all the other available online.

Work Cited

Dochartaigh, Niall O. Internet Research Skills. Sage, 2007.

Fox, Loran. Enron. John Wiley and Sons, 2005.

Palfrey, John and Gasser Urs. Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. Basic Books, 2008.

Thomas, Robert M. Conducting Educational Research. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998.