Welcome!
The Cornell Library or the web?
Both!
There's an enormous amount of material that is only available through the print and online resources the library purchases -- books, ebooks, e-journals, data sources, news sources, government documents, primary source materials, streaming media, and more.
The library catalog and databases also offer ways to refine and filter your search that are not available in any web search engine.
On the other hand, there are things freely available on the web that you won't find in the library. Many governmental, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and International Government Organizations (IGOs) post reports and sometimes data directly to the web. There are some amazing academic projects and important blogs.
There are also sources (journals and news sources) that post a few articles to the web, but then require payment for additional content. Google Books, of course, may have a preview (or sometimes the full book) of an ebook that the library doesn't have.
Experienced researchers use both tools, and go back and forth between the two.
Avoiding AI glut in your search results
For better or worse, most of the major search engines are now incorporating AI LLMs into their models, but there is a way to avoide the AI content in a Google search. Whether you choose to avoid AI results or not, it's useful to compare the search with, and without, AI generated content.
After composing your search, look under "More" to find "Web." That is the web search, without AI results.
