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Research: Why not just google it?

A new research paper that evaluated the information literacy skills of first-year dental students reports:

Nearly half of students missed one or more question components that required finding an evidence-based citation. Analysis of the survey revealed a significantly higher percentage of students who provided incorrect responses reported using Google as their preferred online search method. In contrast, a significantly higher percentage of students who reported using PubMed were able to provide correct responses.

Following a one-hour intervention by a health science librarian, virtually all students were able to find and retrieve evidence-based materials for subsequent coursework.

Kingsley, Karl, Gillian Galbraith, Matthew Herring, Eva Stowers, Tanis Stewart, and Karla Kingsley, Why Not Just Google It? An Assessment of Information Literacy Skills in a Biomedical Science Curriculum., BMC Medical Education, 11 (2011), 17 doi:10.1186/1472-6920-11-17.

Hat tip to InfoDocket!

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.


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