Why use Web Resources?
Websites provide up-to-the minute news and information about current events, trends, and controversial topics. They may also contain government publications such as reports, statistics, legislation and service information; interviews, newspaper articles; research reports; conference/workshop/symposium papers; maps and other types of resources.
Finding Good Web Resources
Use these good search habits to find high quality, authoritative sources on the internet:
1) Limit your Google Search by domain -- add site:. before a domain, such as .gov or .edu.
2) Use Google Scholar, instead of the regular Google search box to find for scholarly articles
3) Let the Google Scholar citation help you find related articles, create a citation or get the full text from the library
Web Sites for your Design Project
Here are some credible websites to help you get started on your project:
- ThomasNet This link opens in a new window
Search information about industrial products and services in the following categories: downloadable 2D and 3D CAD models for mechanical parts, plant components, and building products for easy insertion into drawings; product catalogs searchable by specification; parts catalogs for class and competitive projects; and, a library of white papers aiding students in their research. This also offers an Industrial Market Trends (IMT) blog, a newsletter, an active forum community, and product news.
Here is a good example of a website that you should probably avoid for your project, because it:
- Was written by undergraduate students
- Has few citations or links out to research content
Rewilding Vermont: https://blog.uvm.edu/jtruong-nr104rewildingvt/
These sources are much more authoritative and useful for your project:
A great source of information on demographics and financial resources are fiscal institutes and regional data centers, like those below: