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The internet has become nearly impossible to use for information. (hexbear.net)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I need to write a zoology paper on bugs

All search results are for pest control businesses or are AI generated garbage that have wrong information.

Yes, the internet always had problems, but I cannot stress how much worse it has gotten for information over the last ten years.

I used to be able to search a species and get scientific papers or at least articles that referenced scientific papers in the results. None of that anymore. All search results are for someone trying to sell you something, and articles are regurgitated AI monstrosities that waffle on with no real information and no references. If your search even manages to direct you to news articles every news site will have identical, poorly written tabloid hidden behind a paywall. All of it useless for even the most basic academic research.

I literally can't do my job if every search result for species identification is behind a paywall, or an AI generated image of a bug that doesn't really exist.

It's no longer the information age. But not because of Trumpism and other things liberal whine about, it's because capitalism has hollowed out the internet into a husk of what it was meant to be.

I literally had to go and buy an expensive field guide from a museum to finish this paper. I haven't had to do that before.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Most colleges have a worldcat portal that provides access to hundreds of publications, it's probably what I'd start with if you have access, some public libraries might have access too? I agree, general internet search isn't good anymore. Also, probably not good anymore, but worth a shot: scholar.google.com

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Yeah I usually end up resorting to Google scholar if I'm looking for a particular paper.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Basically every university has access to EBSCO, JSTOR, Westlaw, Worldcat, or ProQuest or some other database search tool. Usually multiple.

Like I know I have a library science degree but I feel like it's insane that people aren't taught how to use search tools and their importance. I guess Google got pretty good for a couple years there and maybe somehow everyone forgot about everything else? Sad.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

I know how to use the other stuff but it used to be so easy to just use the internet instead.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

Might be able to use worldcat open access as a tool as well.

https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=insects&openAccess=true