Waters library will be hosting a workshop Feb. 3 to teach students how to pick their sources.

“I Just Googled It” is one of many upcoming events in a series taking place as part of a weekly event, Wednesdays at Waters, which will occur at 2 p.m. 

The idea for the program stemmed from noticing that students would come to the librarians looking for certain information that was not available in the library database according to Meaghan Farrell, research and learning librarian.

“They would need something like census information or government details and they would not know how to do research and use our general academic resources. But not all of that you can necessarily find in academic journals,” Farrell said.

This workshop was designed to show students the reliability of the sources they use and how to know which are worth the time and effort to study. According to her, freshmen tend to be the ones who are not familiar with research, but it could be anyone who has not had to write a research paper before. She stated that while the information may be available on the web but that does not make it a good resource or site.

“It could just be somebody who hasn’t had to write a research paper before and it could very well be a junior or something like that depending on what they’re studying or whatever the case may be.” Farrell said. 

As for what the workshop will cover, the next planned one is going to discuss general reference databases and how to navigate them.  She stated that at the moment they are trying to make them inclusive.

“We are trying to have them be as wide-reaching as possible so that anybody does benefit from them,” she said. 

“I Just Googled It: How To Use The Web For Your Web Research” will be held virtually Feb. 3. 

“Get The Dictionary: Navigating General Reference Databases” will be held virtually Feb. 10.