The Michigan eLibrary (MeL) is a set of resources and services available to all Michigan residents online and through their public libraries. MeL includes eResources that provide access to scholarly publications, magazines, images and more. These materials are not freely available through a Google search--the state of Michigan pays for licenses so you can access them for free. 

Use good search strategies and evaluate what you find for credibility and reliability.

What information do you want?

For a published biography, use the MeL Biography Resource Center database.

For articles from published academic journals or credible magazine sources, use a MeL database like Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints or Academic Search Complete.

For Books, use a the MeL ebook (Full EBSCO Collection)

Evaluate the information you find in Google search results

Always click on the author name--What else have they written? What are their credentials?

Google the organization or publisher that hosts the information you found. What does Wikipedia say about them?

Ask yourself--does this information seem right? Are they referring to other resources, studies, that I can verify? Are they trying to persuade me without evidence to back up their claim?

Look at the date--is currency critical? Is this publication capturing the discussion or attitude at this moment in time? If not, what is the context?

If using Wikipedia, make sure you examine annotations and references. Go to the original source cited in the references when possible.

Be a smart Social Media Researcher

Use original posts and tweets, not reposts or retweets.

Go deeper into the topic being discussed

Use Power Searching Strategies to narrow your search

Use quotes around a name or phrase which will search for those words together in that order "michelle obama" "career aspirations"

Use Tools in your search results to set a date range,

Use site: in your search words to search for words in a specific website: COVID education site:michiganchronicle.com

The perfect image can add a lot to a presentation.

It is important when using an image that it is cited properly.

Did you know that even if you cite an image, you may not be legally able to use it. Many images are copyrighted and/or not royalty free, and do not allow for sharing or reuse.

Creative Commons is a simple copyright license that people use to give public permission to share and use their creative work. 

Finding images with Creative Commons licenses

In Google Images, you can use the Search Tools-->Usage Rights at the top of your search results to filter to images that are available for reuse under Creative Commons.

In PowerPoint, you can use the Insert-->Online Pictures and select the Creative Commons only category to filter to images that are available for reuse.

Other sources for images with Creative Commons licenses

Posting on social media also counts as publishing.

You should always acknowledge the original source of your information. For social media posts, an embedded link to the original information, or brief attribution (credit) to the creator of your image or graphic would be appropriate. You should also mention the original source of your information in your post. 

For example:  The Encylopedia of Detroit states that Coleman Young was a union activist for the CIO in the early 1950s.

For longer or more formal types of online publishing, such as a blog post, you would want to use a more formal style of citing, such as MLA style.