As a member of the IET I was recently asked to complete a survey around how I conduct research and access information. I’d be very surprised if the survey reveals anything surprising, but I was surprised enough at one of my answers to consider elaborating on it here.

I am unable to remember the exact wording of the question and the IET won’t allow me to attempt the survey again so you’ll have to survive with an approximation to the question:

What sources do you use to acquire information and what aspects do you like about each source?

Answer:

• Friends and Colleagues: instant, can be challenged/queried, personal.
• Google: Broad, fast, well presented.
• Subject Specific Blogs: Up-to-date, subject specific, RSS feed.

I thought I should expand on my selection and maybe explain some of the more obvious omissions from the list.

Friends and Colleagues:
There is no doubt about it, that the quickest way to get an answer is to ask someone who knows. Obviously this depends on having the right person to hand. When you ask a question of someone you know, the answer you receive is tailored to your situation. The answer can be made more (or less) technical depending on your needs and, more importantly, it can be challenged if you disagree or don’t understand. This discussion allows information to flow both ways and often both parties leave knowing more than before the question was asked.

Google:
Now I recognise that including Google was probably a mistake as it isn’t Google that provides most of my answers, but the sites linked to through Google. Google is the all important tool that points you in the direction of the site containing the information you require. There is no doubt it is fast, broad and that the results are well presented. But it is difficult to challenge the results and you often have to trawl through a number of answers before you find one that is pitched at the right level/angle you require.

Subject Specific Blogs:
Again, the use of the word blogs here is probably a mistake. I should have said, “subject specific information delivered via RSS.” It is up-to-date, comes into one place, is very easy to filter and it doesn’t get in the way of actually doing work.

Information Sources I Don’t Find Useful:

• Email: Bulk email, internal spam, and newsletters all get in the way
• Free Newspapers: Where is the news?
• Homepage Gadgets: I don’t hang around long enough to take in useful information.

Obviously how we consume information depends very much on our environment and the nature of the tasks in hand. There are near infinite information sources available to us, but for whatever reason we tend to select just a few, and stick to them.

I don’t, in any way, claim that I have selected the best sources. These are just the three that first stood out when answering the survey. What have I missed? Are your experiences wildly different to mine? It’s over to you in the comments…