Evaluating Library Resources

Evaluating Library Resources

Now that you have found a collection of print and electronic resources that are applicable to your research, you should evaluate them. Just as you evaluate any important decision you make based on a number of questions that you ask yourself, criteria exist that make it easy for you to decide if you have collected high quality material to use for your research.

For example, you don't buy a car just because it's red. Rather, you consider issues like price, gas mileage, safety, comfort, repair record, reliability in the environment you will drive it in, and other criteria. If the car checks out well in all these areas, then you can confidently buy that red car.

While deciding on a particular information resource might not be as crucial a decision as buying a car, the process of checking out standard criteria still applies. And, if you continue on in research and undertake evermore significant research projects, these decisions will take on a great deal more importance!

Criteria for Evaluating Library Resources

Authorship and Affiliation
Accuracy/Verifiability
Objectivity
Audience
Currency
Content/Purpose
Comparison to Other Similar Resources

Ask yourself the following questions about the criteria listed above.

The answers will help you decide if the sources you found are authoritative and useful. And, of course, these questions apply to print library sources, as well as World Wide Web resources.

Authorship and Affiliation

Who is the author of the book/article/Web site?
Is the author a well-known and well-regarded authority in biology?
Mainly for print resources: How reputable is the publisher?
Does the author list her/his credentials (e.g., education, occupation, etc.) for being an authority on the material?
Does the author's email address appear so you can contact her/him for further information?
Does the author note her/his institutional affiliation (university, government, organization, etc.)?

Accuracy/Verifiability

Note about Web resources: Because anyone can make public a Web site with no review process, a small but vocal minority of junky Web sites exists. Added to this is the thinking that material found via a computer is more accurate than that found in books and other print resources. Nothing could be further from the truth! So, it's critical to judge the veracity of the information presented even more vigilantly than you do print resources.

How reliable and free from error (typographically, factually, and conceptually) is the information?
Are the author's methods for obtaining data or conducting research clearly stated so that the study may be duplicated?
Does the author demonstrate knowledge of scientific theories and techniques?
Mainly for print resources: Does the material include a bibliography?
For Web resources: Are the links to relevant information?

Objectivity

Is the material presented as fact or opinion?
Is the information presented with a minimum of bias?
To what extent is the information trying to sway the opinion of the audience?
For Web resources: Do the pages act as a virtual soapbox?

Audience

Is the material sufficiently scholarly, yet not so complicated that you can't understand it?

Currency

When was the material published?
For Web resources: Is the last update prominently noted?
Does the material present the latest thinking on the topic?
Is currency an important factor for the material that is presented?

Content/Purpose

Is the purpose (to inform, explain, persuade or entertain) of the material apparent?
What topics are included in the material?
Are the topics that are included explored in appropriate depth?
If the material is available in both print and Web format, does coverage differ between versions?
Is supporting material, such as bibliographies; indexes; charts; maps; and other graphics, included and correctly attributed?
How comprehensive is the coverage of the material?

Comparison to Other Similar Materials

Are there other resources that present the same information, and how do they compare, generally, to this one?

In Conclusion. . .

Given your answers to the above questions, is the material authoritative and suitable for your research?

Remember:

Learning to make educated judgements about the veracity of information is a useful skill that will benefit you in the library, the classroom, the laboratory, and as a consumer of information in all forms.
Evaluation of print and Web materials is an ongoing process.
Due to the continual evolution of the World Wide Web, resources that you find there should be evaluated as stringently as possible.
Never use information that you can't verify.

Acknowledgments

Credit for this page is paid to Jan Alexander and Marsha Tate at Wolfgram Memorial Library, Widener University, Chester, PA; Carol Leita at California's InfoPeople Project; and Elizabeth Kirk at the Eisenhower Library, Johns Hopkins University. For more information, take a look at:

How to Critically Analyze Information Sources from Olin, Kroch and Uris Libraries at Cornell University
Evaluating World Wide Web Information from the Libraries at Purdue University

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