Briefing: Online searching strategies for engineering students

This paper discusses the difficulties of sifting through the vast amount of information available online to find information that is accurate, authoritative and relevant, and suggests strategies that engineering students can be taught to help them make the most of the available resources. It also discusses the importance of teaching students various aspects of information literacy, including how they can evaluate the quality of information. It considers the difference between information that is complete and information that is good enough for specific purposes. There is also a discussion on what educators can learn from the information seeking behaviour of students who have grown up with the internet as a primary source and how engineering librarians can be a useful source of advice for both students and educators.