Why search?
The first question to ask yourself before doing any sort of search for information is why? — Why are you searching? What are you after?
Most of the time when we're searching for something, that something is the answer to a question. The question could be "What time's the next train due?" or "What have I seen that actor in?" or it could be something altogether more academic like "How has climate change impacted wildlife and biodiversity?"
🚂
The answer to "What time's the next train due?" is hopefully going to be a single specific time. We could probably find that information on on the train company's website or on something like National Rail Enquiries. Sure, there might be complexities like delayed or cancelled trains, but effectively the answer ought to be straightforward and definitive: a single piece of data from a reputable source should provide us with the information we need.
💀
The answer to "What have I seen that actor in?" is going to give us a few more options: we can probably find a filmography from Wikipedia or the Internet Movie Database, but then we're going to have to deduce from that filmography precisely what it was we saw them in. In other words, the information we find only gives us part of the answer; the rest is on us to critically consider and assess.
🌍
The answer to "How has climate change impacted wildlife and biodiversity?" is going to be even more difficult for us to determine. There's going to be lots of opinions and a breadth of evidence to consider. The answer won't be simple or straightforward and we're going to have to think critically about the search results we find in order to decide which sources are reliable.
Searching for information is easy but finding reliable, useful and relevant information can be more difficult! Information can come from anywhere, the media, blogs, books, journal articles, newspapers and the internet, to name only a few. When faced with a search task like this, we're going to want to make sure that the sources we're finding are relevant and reliable. When we search for train information we go to train information sources; when we search for film information we go to film information sources etc. So when we search for information to answer an academic question, we're going to need to be looking at academic sources.
"Searching for information: Why are we searching" by University of York Library licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 / modified from original with additional text.