Do you have a computer at home?
Do you have a laptop?
Do you have a tablet?
Do you have a mobile phone?
Is your phone always with you?
Can your phone get online?
If you answered yes to any of these questions you probably search many times a day. Every single day.
Perhaps you use different methods and strategies depending on your need.
And chances are you do this all with out thinking about it, as if it were second nature.
No one knows the answer, but quickly someone grabs a phone and instantly there's an answer.
Where they look for the answer and how they look it up depend on the question, but they may frequently start with a general search engine like Google.
We search so frequently that rarely do we step back and think about what we are doing.
Nor do we think to hard about our methods.
Unless...
How many pages of results will you look at?
Will you revise your search?
Will you use advanced techniques?
Will you turn to a specialized source?
When will you give up?
By Western Libraries
Western Libraries Western Washington University Bellingham, WA
