Curation of Health Information Audit

#MHST601

When I need more information about a certain topic or if I identify a gap in my knowledge the first step for me is to search online and most of the time is it going to be a quick Google search to find relevant content. Now when the information I need is specific to my field I often look it up in textbooks or If I know a subject matter expert, I opt to ask that person especially if it is related to a new practice or emerging technology.

The quality of the information and the process to verify it depends on the source I am using. To assess the quality of the Google search results I look for the sources and who contributed that information and their credentials. I always avoid sponsored search results because from experience I have not found them very useful. Also, I will compare the information I got between multiple search results and contrast them while using critical thinking to weed out noise and focus on the real gems to make a list of good sources that I am going to use. The process is slightly different when I am using textbooks or asking an expert. I will spend more time searching and selecting the book or the right subject matter expert for the topic on hand. Then the information I get is usually of high quality and requires less critique.

When I find good information online I bookmark it in my browser which is connected to my profile and it automatically syncs between my different devices making it easy for me to access and retrieve for later. The limitation to this is that sometimes links break or websites are taken down. Therefore, whenever I find information that can be downloaded I would save a copy on my computer for future reference. Now as I started working on the MHST601 course I came across a great tool that I fell in love with immediately which is Zotero, so I started using it to collect and cite my research information (Zotero, n.d.).

Before taking the MHST601 course, I was using bookmarks in my Google Chrome browser to keep my links synced between my different devices. Also, I used OneDrive to store the downloaded information on my computer and sync it with my different devices with a backup on the cloud. Now after starting this course, I am using Zotero and so far it is working great for me.

Reference

Zotero. (n.d.). Your personal research assistant. https://www.zotero.org/