From Inquiry to Academic Writing A Practical Guide, 3rd edition

EvAluATIng lIbRARy SouRCES 141

evaluating Library sources

The information you collect can and will vary in terms of its relevance and

overall quality. You will want to evaluate this information as systemati­

cally as possible to be sure that you are using the most appropriate sources

to develop your argument. Once you have obtained at least some of the

sources you located by searching your library’s catalog, you should eval­

uate the material as you read it. In particular, you want to evaluate the

following information for each article or book:

•   ^ the author’s background and credentials (What is the author’s educa­

tional background? What has he or she written about in the past? Is

this person an expert in the field?)

•   ^ the writer’s purpose

•   ^ the topic of discussion

•   ^ the audience the writer invokes and whether you are a member of that

audience

in helping you establish the timeliness and relevance of your research. To

see the full text of the articles, you must subscribe or pay a nominal fee,

although you can usually preview the articles because the Web site will

include a few sentences describing the content of each article.

A Practice Sequence: Searching for Sources

If you tried the practice sequence on identifying sources (p. 136),

explore your topic further by practicing the types of searches dis­

cussed in this section: a keyword search; a browse; and a journal or

newspaper title search (or a subject search).

Steps to Searching for Sources

■^1 Perform a keyword search. Choose a word or phrase that best

describes your topic.

■^2 Try browsing. Search an alphabetical list by subject.

■^3 Perform a journal or newspaper title search. Find relevant

citations by identifying the exact title of a journal or newspaper,

or by subject.

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