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Information Literacy: Evaluate what you find

An overview of the help that we can offer to support your studies and research

Evaluating the authority, usefulness, and reliability of the information you find is a crucial step in the process of library research. The questions you ask about books, periodical articles, multimedia titles, or Web pages are similar whether you're looking at a citation to the item, a physical item in hand, or an electronic version on a computer. Critically Analyzing Information Sources lists some of the questions you should ask when you consider the appropriateness of a particular book, article, media resource, or Web site for your research.

Book​

Use book reviews to gather critical information about books. Three quick ways to access them online [Cornell users only]:

More sources for book reviews --> Book Reviews: A Finding Guide.

Periodicals​

Distinguishing Scholarly from Other Periodicals shows how to evaluate periodicals by looking at their format, intended audience, and appearance.
Watch short videos: Recognizing scholarly journals    Identifying substantive news sources  
 

Websites

Evaluating Web Pages: Questions to Ask & Strategies for Getting the Answers is an excellent guide from UC Berkeley.

Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Sites is a brief table of tips and questions to ask.