Evaluating Sources How to Decide Who to Trust And What to Use Created by Lauren Wolter, Adapted from Joyce Valenza’s Power Tools Recharged And Joe Barker & John Kupersmith’s Beyond Google

The Problems: Anyone can put up a Web page about anything Many pages not kept up-to-date No quality control most sites not “peer-reviewed” less trustworthy than scholarly publications no selection guidelines for search engines

The Questions: What are the qualities of a good source? How do we weed through the many sources to find the good ones?

CARRDS Acronym Credibility Accuracy Reliability Relevance Date Sources Behind the Source

Credibility Who is the author? What are his or her credentials? Who is the person/organization putting this info out there? Are they qualified to do so? Who is the author? What are his or her credentials? Education Experience Affiliation with any universities, museums, scientific, or professional communities? Image from http://www.thevarguy.com/tag/windows-azure/

Credibility: How to Find Out How do you know who I am? Look for: Books: Check back cover, back flap. Websites: Look for tab or link: Author Information, About Us/Me, Philosophy, Background, Biography URL: Learn about affiliations by going to the main page (truncate URL after .com/.org/.edu/.net) Image from http://www.thevarguy.com/tag/windows-azure/

Accuracy Which is it? Can facts, statistics, or other info be verified through other sources? Based upon your knowledge, does the info seem accurate? (Or does it contradict other info you’ve found?) Does author cite his/her sources? Image from http://conflictinworkplace.com/2011/08/02/conflict-facts-or-your-story-which-one-are-you-telling-yourself/

You’ve got it on ___ news. Reliability Does the source present a particular view or bias? Issues/historical events: does the source acknowledge more than one “side” to the issue or event? Does the info seem “slanted” toward a particular side or agenda? Are sources biased organizations? You’ve got it on ___ news. Image from http://www.frankwbaker.com/bias.htm

Will this piece of info ADD to the bigger picture of your research? Relevance Does this info directly support my hypothesis/thesis? Does this info help to answer my research questions? Does this info add to my research or simply repeat the same info I found elsewhere? Will this piece of info ADD to the bigger picture of your research? Image from http://www.deadline.com/tag/keith-olbermann-current-tv/

Date Is this info outdated? When was this info created? When/how was it revised? Are these dates meaningful in terms of the particular subject matter? Look at bottom of page for “Last Updated” or copyright date. Image from http://aptitudestaffing.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/

Sources Behind the Source Look at the sources this author cites. If no sources are cited, that may be a warning sign. Did the author use reliable, credible sources? Do the links work? HINT: If so, you may want to find some of this author’s sources. Did the author use credible sources? Could you use them too? Image from http://triplehelixblog.com/2011/03/terrorist-networks-rethinking-the-logic-behind-web-search-engines/

Beyond Google: Databases Start general, then get specific as you refine your knowledge and narrow your focus. General: Brittanica, possibly NetTrekker Issues: Issues & Controversies, ProQuest History: History Study Center, ABC-Clio Countries: CultureGrams Image from http://mams.rmit.edu.au/bmjzv5tuoc1g1.gif

Beyond Google: Directories Organized into subject categories Librarians’ Internet Index (lii.org) Infomine About.com – a collection of specialized directories Yahoo’s directory http://dir.yahoo.com 4 million UNevaluated pages - about 0.06% of Yahoo! search

Other Tools Alexa: See who links to the site and who owns the domain. Google: Similar sites through Preview

Let’s Do Some Practice… Open up Internet Explorer. Home page is library website. In right sidebar, under “Quick Links”, select “Research Pathfinders” Open file and click on link for Octopus site.