What you want to find will shape where you want to search.
See also the Information Sources pages for an introduction to the most common types of information sources
There is a lot of information out there, especially on the web. However, just because something is available in a book or on the web, doesn't make it true, or reliable; anybody can write anything, so you need to be careful about what web and other information sources that you use. See the Evaluating Information Sources pages for more information.
Wikipedia is a very popular site, and links to it appear on this library website. However, be careful about using Wikipedia as a trusted information source. Says who? Wikipedia itself:
Wikipedia can be edited by anyone at any time. This means that any information it contains at any particular time could be vandalism, a work in progress, or just plain wrong. Biographies of living persons, subjects that happen to be in the news, and politically or culturally contentious topics are especially vulnerable to these issues. Edits on Wikipedia that are in error may eventually be fixed. However, because Wikipedia is a volunteer run project, it cannot monitor every contribution all of the time. There are many errors that remain unnoticed for days, weeks, months, or even years. Therefore, Wikipedia should not be considered a definitive source in and of itself.
Source Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a reliable source
Wikipedia however is a good starting point. Don't look at the articles, but the sources referenced in Wikipedia articles instead - they are normally good quality sources that provide more in-depth information and can be suitable for use in assignments
This page, in the Evaluating Information Section has more detail on Wikipedia and that section's links page has some links to relevant pages
Have a look at the Electronic Resources page. This is an A to Z list of free and and commercial resources to which the Library subscribes. Under the Library Resource Guides navigation bar heading, there are user guides to all the Library's subscribed resources. The eBooks page provides details to the two eBook platform to which the library has access
On individual subject guides, if the Library subscribes to relevant resources, these will be listed on a library resources page.
The Open Scholarly Resources section provides suggestions on finding scholarly resources that are freely available. A 2018 study looking at published scholarly research for 2015 suggested that nearly 50% of such articles are freely and legally available. The percentage has almost certainly increased since then.
There's lots of great and useful information out on the Internet, but at the same time there's lots of rubbish too. You need to be able to critically evaluate material you find on the Internet but Library resources contain journal articles, videos, dissertations, newspapers and other sources that are informative and authoritative. They contain high-quality content, written, or selected, by experts in their fields and not freely available on the internet. Using Library resources will help with your work and help improve your marks for assignments.
Outside of the library website, here are some sites you can consider using (note this isn't any kind of comprehensive listing of sites)
Newspapers are still the best places to find news. Many newspapers have some kind of online presence and this site has a large (but not necessarily complete) list of online newspapers and news sources by country). Google News is a good aggregator (collector of content from other sources) of news content.
The library subscribes to PressReader, which provides access to thousands of newspapers and magazines. See the PressReader guide for more information and details how to access the platform
The Central Statistics Office is the official agency tasked with gathering statistics and therefore the best source of Irish statistical data. For other statistical data, The Knoema Data Atlas provides world and regional statistics, national data, maps and rankings. Another decent source of statistical information for the countries of the world is the CIA World Factbook. This page, from RBA information services, links to a number of national and international statistics sources
The Companies Registration Office registers and incorporates companies in Ireland as well as filing their annual returns and makes company information available to the public. Northcote is a free online company information site that provides links to annual reports. The website of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) provides a listing of free company information sources. Company websites often (but not always) give their report & accounts, press releases and key personnel information.
