Assess and Select Your Sources [1 ed.] 9781467762298, 9781467752220

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Valerie Bodden

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Valerie bodden

Lerner Publications

Minneapolis

For Josh and our little projects—Hannah, Elijah, Titus, and Chloe

Copyright © 2015 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review. Lerner Publications Company A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. 241 First Avenue North Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA For reading levels and more information, look up this title at www.lernerbooks.com. Main body text set in Adrianna Regular 11/18. Typeface provided by Chank. The Cataloging-in-Publication Data for Assess and Select Your Sources is on file at the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-1-4677-5222-0 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4677-7579-3 (pbk.) ISBN 978-1-4677-6229-8 (EB pdf) Manufactured in the United States of America 1 — CG —12/31/14

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Introduction It’s All in the Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Chapter 1 How Can I Find Information at the Library? . . . . . . . . 6 Chapter 2 How Can I Find Information Online? . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Chapter 3 Which Sources Are Relevant to My Project? . . . . . . . 22 Chapter 4 Which Sources Can I Trust? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Now You Do It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Selected Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Further Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

introdUction

IT’S ALL IN THE SOURCES You’ve begun working on the most fascinating research project ever. You know what your teacher expects. You’ve narrowed down your topic, written research questions you’d like to answer, and made a list of keywords and their synonyms to help you search for information. You even have a preliminary list of information sources, also known as a working bibliography. The next step is to assess and select the right sources for your project. Take a look around you. How many sources of information can you spot right now? There’s at least one: this book! Are you also near a TV or a radio? What about a phone, a tablet, or a computer? Do you see any other books or magazines in the room? Can you find any posters, signs, or pamphlets? Maybe there’s a catalog or a takeout menu. Do you see any people you could speak with or listen to? Perhaps there’s a science experiment happening in your kitchen or plants or animals living in your yard.

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The point is, it’s hard to go anywhere without encountering information in one form or another. And that’s a good thing— it’s how we learn about the world around us! But sometimes, having so much information available can be confusing. This is especially true when you’re looking for information about one specific topic, like when you’ve been assigned a research paper.

How do you know where to find the information you need? And once you do find it, how do you know if you can trust it?

Fortunately, places such as libraries and tools such as the Internet can help make the search for information easier. Not all the information you find in the library or online will be useful or reliable, though. That’s why you need to evaluate your sources and ask questions of them. Don’t worry. Questioning your sources isn’t bad manners. It’s part of being a good researcher!

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cHapter 1

HOW CAN I FIND INFORMATION AT THE LIBRARY? It may seem as though you can find almost anything on the Internet. So why should you even bother searching the library for sources? Good question! Here are some strong reasons for finding sources at the library: •

The library has books—lots and lots of books. Although you can find some books online (and might even be able to check out e-books through your library), the library has many books that you won’t find anywhere else.

•

Libraries are organized. Librarians spend a lot of time categorizing print books and placing them in just the right spots on the shelves so you can find them more easily.

•

The resources in libraries have been chosen carefully. Before purchasing a book for a library’s collection, a librarian evaluates it. This does not mean that you can automatically assume that anything you find in a library is reliable—you still need to evaluate each source for yourself. But it is one more mark in favor of the source’s credibility.

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•

Libraries provide free access to articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers, often through subscriptions to online databases. You’d need to pay to read these sources on your own.

•

Libraries have other resources too, including microform, government documents, and video and sound recordings. Some libraries even have special collections that contain historical primary sources such as private letters or other artifacts.

•

Libraries have librarians. If you get stuck while doing research, librarians can help you.

USinG tHe online cataloG Next, let’s talk about the things you’ll want to keep close by as you research at the library. No, they’re not candy and soft drinks. They’re the products of your own hard work—your research questions, keyword list, and working bibliography. Remember those? You worked on them in the earliest planning stages of your project. Your research questions are the questions you want to find the answers to through your research, such as this question: Why do people eat spinach? Your keyword list contains important words related to your topic, as well as their synonyms. Examples include spinach, leafy greens, or nutritional benefits of spinach. These will be your search terms as you look for sources. And your working bibliography is your list of potential sources based on your preliminary research. You’ll tweak all three of these things as you find and evaluate sources.

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Libraries have a variety of print and digital sources available for research.

Got all that handy? Great, then you’re ready! You can either head to the library or pull up the library’s catalog on your home computer. The catalog lists all the books the library holds. If your library is part of a consortium, the catalog might even list the books available at other libraries in the area. Most library catalogs have a keyword search. This means that when you type in one of the terms from your keyword list, the catalog’s search engine will look for that term anywhere in its entries. The keyword might be part of a book’s subject, title, author, or description. So if you search for a subject that can also be a person’s name, such as ivy, you might get results about poison ivy. But you might also get the book Ivy + Bean or books by authors with a first or last name of Ivy. Different libraries use different programs for their online catalogs. Instead of a keyword search, your library catalog may require you to choose a search field, such as title or subject. If you’re having a hard time with your library’s catalog, ask a librarian. Librarians are

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there to help! If you’re not at the library, try the “Help” links on the library’s website. Those can give you answers to common questions or put you in touch with a librarian.

adVanced SearcHinG Sometimes you might need to get savvy with your keywords to find exactly what you’re looking for. Most library catalogs allow you to use a Boolean search to pinpoint your topic. A Boolean search uses the terms and, or, and not to combine search terms. The not operator, for example, will leave out any results that contain a certain word. So if you want to eliminate the Ivy + Bean books from your search for ivy, you could type ivy not bean. You’ll get all the results that contain the word ivy, except the ones that also contain the word bean. If your search brings up too many results, you may need to make it more specific. You can do this with the and operator or the not operator. In fact, many catalogs automatically insert the word and whenever you type more than one term in the search box. So if you were looking for information about poison ivy, you could simply type poison ivy or poison and ivy, and the catalog would bring up only results containing both words. Books with only the word poison or only the word ivy in their entries would be left out of the results. If you want to search for a phrase, put quotation marks around those words. This will bring up only results in which the words of the phrase appear together, in exactly the order you typed them.

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If you are not getting enough search results, you might try placing the word or between your terms. Then the catalog will bring up results containing any of your search words. So a search for poison or ivy would bring up all the results containing the word poison, as well as all the results containing the word ivy. This can be useful if you are searching for something that goes by more than one name. Say you want to research cougars, which are also known as mountain lions or pumas. Then you might search for cougar or mountain lion or puma. If you don’t want to come up with your own Boolean search, you can usually get the same results by using the catalog’s advanced search page. The advanced search might give you the option of adding Boolean operators from a drop-down menu. Or it might let you search for results containing all the words (and), containing any of the words (or), or not containing specific words (not). Try some different keyword combinations to figure out which will give you the best results.

Similar to a Boolean search, a library catalog’s advanced search page can help you narrow down search results.

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The library catalog will probably give you other search options too. If you are looking for a specific book or if you want to find books with a specific word in the title, you can search by title. You can search by author too. You might try this if a particular author’s name keeps popping up in your other sources—that person may be an expert on the topic. Another option is to search by subject. Unlike a keyword search, which looks for your specific term anywhere in an entry, a subject search looks at the subject librarians have used to classify the book. Figuring out the right subject heading to search for your topic can be tricky, since subject headings tend to be particular. If you do a subject search for mountain lions, for example, you might not get any results. That’s because libraries might categorize books about this particular animal under the subject heading puma. The easiest way to figure out the best subject headings for your topic is to start with a keyword search. Then, when you find a promising source, click on the catalog entry. There you will see a list of the subject headings the book is listed under. Use these headings to find additional books on the subject. Your library catalog might also have a list of subject headings you can browse. Or visit the Library of Congress Subject Headings website (id.loc.gov /authorities/subjects.html) and type in your keywords to generate a list of potential subject headings.

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You can find subject headings by typing in a keyword at the Library of Congress Subject Headings website.

As you discover new related terms or subject areas, keep track of them. You may find it helpful to make a note or add the terms to your keyword list. If your original keyword list included mountain lions but not pumas, go ahead and add pumas. That way you’ll remember to look up that term too as you search for more sources. An advanced search might also allow you to limit results to a specific format: books, films, or audio recordings, for example. Or you might be able to specify that you want resources published only between certain years.

to tHe SHelf Once you’ve devised your search, the catalog will bring up a list of books that fit your search criteria. Usually, these will be listed in order of relevance, or how closely the book titles match your search terms. In most catalogs, you can re-sort the list by title, author, or date published.

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If you click on an entry that interests you, you can find out more about the source, including its author, full title, publication information, subject headings, and possibly a description. The item’s listing should also provide you with a call number. This is the book’s address on the shelf. Write down the call numbers of the books that seem useful for your topic. Remember that libraries are organized places. So call numbers are not assigned randomly. Instead, for nonfiction books, call numbers are based on the subject of the book. Most libraries use one of two systems for cataloging their books: the Dewey decimal system or the Library of Congress system. The Dewey decimal system, which is used by most school and public libraries, categorizes books using a series of numbers before and after a decimal point. Some public and most college libraries use the Library of Congress system, which uses letters followed by numbers. In recent years, some school libraries have started organizing books by category. If your school is one of them, you may need to ask the librarian for help until you get used to this system. No matter which system a library uses, books are arranged on the shelves numerically by call number. All you have to do is find the shelf that contains your book’s call number. Then scan the spines of the books until you find the one with the call number you are looking for.

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While you’re at the right call number, take a look around. Remember, call numbers are based on subject matter. So other books nearby will likely cover the same topic. Some of them might be useful for your project too.

it’S in tHe databaSe Books aren’t the only thing libraries are good for. Hundreds of newspapers, magazines, and journals are likely to be available there too. But you won’t find most of these by walking around your library’s shelves. Although your library probably keeps some print periodicals, most libraries rely on online databases to provide access to these sources. You can usually access the databases from the library or from your home— all you need is a computer and a library card. If you have questions while you’re working at home, you have a couple of options. Start by looking for a help menu or a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page on the library’s website. If that doesn’t solve your problem, try calling or e-mailing a librarian through the site’s contact page. Your library probably offers access to databases containing a wide range of general-interest publications. But some school libraries and most public libraries offer specialized databases as well. For example, you might find databases dedicated to health, education, art, and even math. Through these databases, you can read articles in scholarly journals related to your research topic. Most database searches work the same way as catalog searches. You can search by keyword, author, title, or subject. Databases usually

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allow Boolean searches and also offer advanced search options. You might even be able to search within a specific publication. Some databases offer the full text of articles. Others offer only abstracts, or summaries. But don’t be discouraged if you come across an abstract. You can use this information to track down a print copy of the article. Check whether your library owns the print periodical. If it’s an older article, your library might have access to it on microform. Or ask your librarian to request the article from another library through an interlibrary loan. By this point, you should have a good list of potential sources to investigate. Your next step will be to find the sources themselves.

DEW EY DEC IMA L CLASSI FICATIO N

The Dewey decimal classification system divides all areas of knowledge into ten categories. 500s: Natural sciences and mathematics 000s: Generalities 600s: Technology 100s: Philosophy and psychology 200s: Religion 300s: Social sciences 400s: Language

700s: The arts 800s: Literature and rhetoric 900s: Geography and history

Each category can be broken down further. So, for example, books with a call number of 598 are about birds, while books with a call number of 599 are about mammals. Numbers after the decimal point can be used to classify

books further. Books about swans are classified as 598.418, while books about bald eagles fall under the classification of 598.943. This system makes it easy for libraries to shelve all those nonfiction books. Even better for you, it makes it easy to find the information you need for your assignment.

cHapter 2

HOW CAN I FIND INFORMATION ONLINE? Your first instinct whenever you need to research something is probably to jump online. After all, where else can you find the score of last night’s game, your favorite celebrity’s latest news, and the population of Zambia, all within seconds? But before you start clicking, let’s talk about the good and the not-so-good of using the Internet for research.

tHe Good •

The Internet provides access to trillions of files about nearly any subject imaginable.

•

The Internet is a great resource for information on current events that may not yet be covered in books. News often breaks first online, before it can be published in print newspapers.

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•

You can find all kinds of sources online, including newspapers, magazines, government documents, historical papers, encyclopedias, blogs, personal websites, and more. The web is full of images and video files too.

tHe not-So-Good •

The Internet provides access to trillions of files about nearly any subject imaginable. Yes, this was listed as one of the Internet’s good qualities too. It’s great that so much information can be found with the click of a mouse. But it can be difficult to sort through that much information to find something useful for your particular project.

•

The Internet has no gatekeepers, such as publishers, editors, or librarians, to keep unreliable information out. This means that anyone can publish anything online— whether it’s true or not. Some sites are edited and fact-checked closely, but it can take some digging to find out which sites those are.

•

The Internet can be disorganized—way worse than your room. Some parts of it are curated as neatly as a library, but there are no official rules about how to organize websites and pages. No one has sorted through every bit of information on the web and arranged it into neat categories as librarians do with books.

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tHe SearcH beGinS So let’s get down to searching the web for your topic. First, you need to choose a search engine. Google is the most popular search engine, so let’s start with it. Say you’re researching bears. Do a Google search for your topic. How many results do you get? Yikes! That search gives you about 90 million hits. You don’t have time to read that many websites. Of course, many of those search results will be irrelevant. They’re about the Chicago Bears, Bears the movie, or even the Berenstain Bears. There must be ways to narrow down your search results so that you get fewer, more relevant websites, right? As a matter of fact, there are. First of all, let’s get more specific with your keywords. Take a look at the list of keywords you made in the early stages of your project. You probably have a few phrases, in addition to single keywords. Are you looking for information about a certain kind of bear, such as the grizzly bear? If so, try searching for those two words together. There’s no need to add the and operator, since Google automatically adds it. That narrows your results down to about six million. It’s getting better, but that’s still a lot of hits.

An Internet search engine such as Google can be a good starting point for topic research. Be sure to narrow down your results to find the best sources for your assignment.

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What, specifically, do you want to know about grizzly bears? Think about the different subtopics you plan to explore. Do you want to know where grizzly bears live or what they eat? Try adding those keywords. A search for grizzly bears habitat, for example, brings up about three hundred thousand results. Obviously, that’s still more than you can possibly read, but it does narrow down the possibilities. You can scan through the first several pages of results to choose the most promising links. In general, the more keywords you enter in a search, the fewer results you will get. Most search engines let you use other Boolean operators as well. But not all search engines use operators in the same way. Google, for example, uses a hyphen (-) instead of the word not to exclude a term. So if you want to know about grizzly bears but not hibernation, you’d type grizzly bears -hibernation. If you’re not sure how a particular search engine handles Boolean searches, check out its help or support page. Most search engines also offer an advanced search option. This screen allows you to search for combinations of keywords. On some search engines, you can also search for sites written in specific languages or updated within a certain time frame. You can even ask the search engine to look for your keywords on a specific website. Many search engines can search specifically for images, videos, news coverage, or books.

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No matter how you perform your search, the search engine will list the most relevant results first, according to that search engine. Different search engines determine relevance in different ways, based on factors such as a site’s title, keywords, or links. Be aware too that the first several links listed are often sponsored results. That means that these websites have paid money to be listed first in the search results, often because they want to sell you something. In addition to sponsored results, sometimes a search will bring up related advertising to the side of your search results. Fortunately, sponsored results and ads are usually marked with the word ad or sponsored. If you don’t want to see them at all, try a kid-friendly search engine that doesn’t include sponsored results, such as KidRex.org or googlejunior.com.

SearcHinG fUrtHer If you get three hundred thousand results from one search engine, you may think that’s more than enough. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve gotten all the best results for your topic. Search engines crawl the Internet to index sites. That means that they have programs that jump from link to link, keeping track of the different sites they encounter along the way. But each search engine crawls the web differently. Each indexes sites in its own way. And search engines use different factors to determine a site’s ranking in the results list.

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A general search engine can turn up thousands of results. Try using a specialized search engine such as Artcyclopedia to get better search results on a topic.

But what does all of this have to do with your search? Well, it means that if you use only one search engine, you’re likely to miss out on some great sources for your topic. So in addition to Google, try some other search engines as well, such as Yahoo, Bing, Ask, or DuckDuckGo. Or you might try a specialized search engine. If your topic is related to biology, for example, you could check out biologybrowser.com. Do you need information about art? Try artcyclopedia.com. To find a specialized encyclopedia, start with a general search engine. Type in the category under which your topic falls (such as health or history), followed by search engine.

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cHapter 3

WHICH SOURCES ARE RELEVANT TO MY PROJECT? Chances are, by the time you’ve finished searching the library catalog, databases, and the Internet, you’ll have a huge list of potential sources, more than you can possibly read before your project is due. But don’t panic! You don’t need to read them all. You see, the point is not to find as many sources as you possibly can. Instead, the point is to find the most useful sources about your topic. But which ones are those? Put simply, they’re the ones that are the most relevant and the most reliable. And how do you know which ones are relevant and reliable? Well, you will evaluate them. It’ll take a little reading and a little thought, but in the long run, it will save you a lot of time.

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deScriptionS, tableS of contentS, and indeXeS Let’s start with the concept of relevance. .

You have learned about relevance in terms of searching, but relevance means something a little different when you’re actually looking at potential sources. This time you, not a librarian or a computer algorithm, are the one deciding if a source is relevant to your project. Before you head to a shelf to look at a book, read about the book in an online catalog. Use the description there as a starting point for figuring out if the book is relevant to your topic. Add any potentially useful sources from the catalog to your working bibliography. And be sure to cross any books that don’t seem relevant off your list. You won’t need them for this project. Once you have a working bibliography filled with potentially useful books, it’s time to grab them off the shelf. But hold on! Don’t just check out every book you’ve listed as a potential source. First, take a look through each book. Start with the table of contents—the page at the front of the book that lists the name and page number of each chapter. Is at least one chapter devoted to your specific topic? For example, if you are researching the endangered status of tigers and you find a book about endangered animals, is one chapter dedicated to tigers? Or maybe there are chapters about the major reasons that tigers are endangered, such as habitat loss or poaching. If so, this book may be useful for your research.

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You can figure out whether a book is a good source for your project by skimming the table of contents and the index.

Flip to the index too. That’s the list at the back of the book that specifies all the topics covered in the book and the page numbers on which they’re covered. The index is much more detailed than the table of contents and includes many key terms that appear in the book. As you skim the index, look for the terms from your keyword list. There’s no way to know which specific terms the index uses for each topic, so be sure to look up the synonyms from your list too. Instead of boats, for instance, an index may have an entry for watercraft, vessels, or specific types of boats such as canoes. If your topic isn’t covered in either the table of contents or the index, you can probably eliminate the source. The exception to this guideline is if the entire book is about your specific topic. Then you probably won’t see your topic listed separately in the table of contents or the index. Instead, these pages will contain listings of subtopics.

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Even if your topic is in the table of contents or the index, do a little more digging before assuming the book will be useful for your project. Skim the introduction as well as the pages you found listed in the table of contents and the index. You’re not looking to get detailed notes from the source at this point, but you do want to figure out if the information on those pages will be useful. As you skim, keep your research questions in mind. Does the information you’re seeing answer any of those questions? Does it lead to new questions that you might want to explore? If so, add them to your list of questions to be answered. Does it provide background information that might help you—or your readers— better understand the topic? If you answer yes to any of these questions, the book is a keeper. Grab your working bibliography and note the kinds of useful information the book includes, such as “story of a runaway slave.” Use your working bibliography to keep track of pages you’ll want to come back and take notes on too. Or use sticky notes or bookmarks to mark relevant pages. Consider one more thing: Can you understand the information in the book? If you can’t, is it just because you need to do more background reading on your topic? Or is it because the book is written in academic language intended for experts in the subject area? Is the writing full of jargon? A book about medicine, written for doctors, might use terms such as bibasilar, PERRLA, or claudication. You may need to skip sources like this, unless they include easy-to-understand explanations. Otherwise, it could take years of specialized study to understand them. And if you can’t understand a source, how can you analyze it?

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articleS and WebSiteS Many articles and websites don’t have a table of contents or an index. So how can you figure out if those sources are relevant to your topic? Databases generally provide an abstract of each article. This can help you narrow down which articles to read. Whether you find an article in print or in a database, you can also skim its introduction and conclusion. Look through the article for subheadings too. These can give you an idea of the major topics covered in the article. List any relevant articles in your working bibliography, along with a note about their content. Keep track of which database they are in too so you can find them again. Some databases will even allow you to create your own account and save the articles you’d like to read later. For a website, check to see if there is a site map. This serves as an index to the pages on the site. Another option is to check out the menu on the home page, which provides links to other pages within that website. Do you see links to any pages that might include your topic? Click on those pages. Skim the introduction and conclusion of any page that looks as if it might be relevant. Look for subheadings or links to further pages about your subject. You can even use your browser’s Find command (Control-F) to search a page for your keywords. Do they pop up multiple times on a page? Is the information surrounding them relevant to your topic? If so, be sure the website is on your working bibliography along with its full URL. If you copy and paste the URL

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into your bibliography instead of handwriting it, you’re less likely to end up with mistakes. Include a short description of the site too. If you’re using a home computer, you can even bookmark the site. Taking the time to skim your potential sources at this stage helps you weed out the irrelevant ones. As an added bonus, it will make taking notes from your sources much easier later on. That’s because you’ll already know what each source covers and where to find the relevant information. And you’ll already have a basic understanding of the information in each source.

SAMPL E WORK ING BIBLIO GRAPH Y Subject: exploration of Mars Mars Exploration Rovers Summary. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: California Institute of Technology. http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer /overview/. n. d. Explains how the exploration rovers learned about Mars, including tools and technology they used McKay, Christopher P., and Victor Parro Garcia. “How to Search for Life on Mars.” Scientific American June 2014, Vol. 310 Issue 6, pp. 44–49. Discusses the methods scientists use to learn more about possible life on Mars Miller, Ron. Curiosity’s Mission on Mars: Exploring the Red Planet. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2014. Describes what people have learned about Mars from Curiosity’s mission

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cHapter 4

WHICH SOURCES CAN I TRUST?

You’ve whittled down your sources. You have a list of books, articles, and websites that are relevant to your topic. It’s time to figure out whether all of these sources are reliable. After all, you’re going to base your project on what you find in your sources. So what is a reliable source? A reliable—or credible—source has accurate information that you can trust. Remember, just because you found something in print, in a video, or online does not mean it’s true. Determining whether a source is reliable can be even trickier than determining its relevance. But certain clues can help you.

aUtHor First, consider the author. Most books have an About the Author section. Do the author’s credentials demonstrate that the author is an expert in the field? If, for instance, the author of a book about birds is called a humorist in his or her biography, this book may not be the most scientifically reliable source on birds. However, if the

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author of a book on birds teaches ornithology (the study of birds) at a university, the book is likely to be a credible source. Some newspapers, magazines, and websites include information about the author too. But many do not. Then you might look up the author online. What other kinds of work has she done? Is he regarded as an expert in the field? Do you find any reviews supporting or discrediting her work? If your source doesn’t list an author (which is often the case for websites) or you can’t find much information about an author, you should look carefully for other signs of reliability before you use the source.

pUbliSHer or SponSor Look at your source’s publication information as well. You can find it on a book’s copyright page or in an article’s database entry. Was the book published by a university press? Did a scholarly journal publish that article? If so, that source probably went through a peer review before being published. This means that other experts in the field have agreed that it is a reliable source. Just because a source is from a non-scholarly publication does not make it unreliable, though. Is it from a well-known publisher or a respected newspaper, such as the New York Times? If you don’t recognize the publisher or the publication, do some research. Can you find any other works the publisher has produced? Are there any reviews for this source?

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If your source is a website—and especially if no author is listed—pay close attention to the organization that sponsors the site. This information should be easy to find. It’s often listed at the top or the bottom of the site, or you can check the “About” link. Is the organization well known? Does it have a good reputation in its field? If you’re reading an article about heart disease on the website of the American Heart Association (AHA), for example, you can probably trust it, since the AHA is a reputable organization dedicated to heart health. Another thing to consider is the site’s address, or domain name. Does it end in .edu, .gov, .org, or .com? In general, sites ending in .edu are sponsored by a college or a university and .gov sites are sponsored by a government agency. These types of sites are generally reliable, but be aware that educational sites might contain work posted by students. Sites ending with .com or .org, on the other hand, may or may not be reliable. Sometimes .org sites are sponsored by nonprofit or professional organizations, such as the American Red Cross or the American Academy of Pediatrics. And many encyclopedias end with .com. But business sites trying to sell you something can also end with .org or .com. Most personal sites end with .com too. You don’t have to automatically rule out personal sites. But you do need to be aware that anyone can publish anything online—including things they’ve made up. So be sure to check into the author’s credentials.

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date of pUblication In addition to the publisher or the sponsor of the information, look at the date it was published. For some topics, such as historical events, this may not matter much. But new interpretations of events are offered all the time. And old primary sources, such as personal letters or autobiographies, can be rich sources of information for some topics. But if you’re writing about technology, sports, health care, or other fields that change frequently, you’ll need something that was written in the last few years. It can be difficult to find a publication date on many websites. One way to check whether a site is current is to click on some of its links. Do they lead where they’re supposed to? Or are many of them broken? Broken links can be an indication that a site is no longer being updated. And that means its material is probably outdated.

SoUrceS cited Just as you need to cite your research sources, you should check that your sources cite their sources too. Look for a bibliography or links to sources within the content of a website. One reason for including a bibliography is to prove that a work is based on reliable information. A bibliography also allows you to double-check that the author has used information from his sources accurately. So go ahead and check them out. Has your source presented his source’s information correctly? If a source has no bibliography, that doesn’t automatically mean it is unreliable (especially if it is an autobiography or other firsthand account), but you should check for other signs of reliability.

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WIKIPEDIA AS A SOURCE During your Internet search, you will probably come across one or more Wikipedia articles about your topic. Should you use them for your assignment? You probably shouldn’t use them as stand-alone sources. In fact, your teacher may have rules about not citing Wikipedia as a source at all. Wikipedia is an open-source encyclopedia. Open-source means two things. First, it’s free for anyone to use. You don’t need to pay for a subscription or look at advertising to access Wikipedia articles. More importantly for your project, the articles on Wikipedia can be written or edited by anyone, from experts to students to pranksters. If someone posts false information, it stays there until somebody else notices and revises the text. In addition, although many Wikipedia articles cite sources, some do not. Wikipedia can serve as a good starting point for your research, though. If you find interesting information in Wikipedia, you can look for another source to verify it. And you can refer to a Wikipedia article’s reference list to find other sources about your topic.

The References or Notes section in a Wikipedia article will tell you what sources the entry’s authors used to write the article. You can evaluate the trustworthiness of these sources yourself.

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Special Considerations for Websites Here are a few more things to think about when you’re looking at online sources: errors, blogs, and asking questions. First, keep an eye out for errors. Does the website you’re reading include a lot of typos or spelling and grammar errors? Do you see any obvious factual mistakes? It’s possible that the site’s author is just bad at spelling. But it’s also possible that the person did not put much time or effort into writing—or researching—the information on the site. It’s probably best not to use it. Next, pay attention to whether your potential source is a blog, or a site on which a person writes his or her opinions or reflections. To figure out if a page is a blog, look for dated entries. Blogs contain postings or articles in the order they were written. The newest entries are usually at the top on the home page. Pay attention to the content too. Blogs often refer to recent events, either in the writer’s life or in the field in which the writer works. While blogs can be written by experts in many fields, some blogs are more like personal journals. Skim a few entries to figure out what kind of blog you’ve come across. And spend some extra time reading the About the Author section of the blog before deciding whether to trust that source. Finally, keep in mind that someone created each website you find online. One of the benefits of using the Internet is that you can often contact a website’s author or sponsoring organization. So if you’re not sure if someone’s an expert, you can always send an e-mail inquiring about the author’s credentials. Remember to be polite and respectful. You may even find that the person is willing to answer questions about your topic. It doesn’t hurt to ask!

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be aWare of biaS As you look at a source, you also need to watch for bias. Bias can show up anywhere: in books, magazines, newspapers, websites, and even conversations. In fact, it would be hard for any author to be truly unbiased, or objective, all the time. That’s because we all have opinions, and we all view the world around us in slightly different ways. But you need to be aware of a source’s bias to correctly interpret the information you read. As you look for bias, consider these aspects of a source: •

Author. Is the author a known advocate for a certain viewpoint? Does he or she represent an advocacy organization? For example, if your source is a well-known member of the environmental organization Greenpeace, he will probably present a very different view of oil drilling than would an expert representing the oil industry. Consider who will benefit from the information presented.

•

Purpose. Is the work meant to inform you? Or is the author trying to convince you to take an action? Does she want to sell you something? Skimming the introduction of a book can give you an idea of the author’s purpose in writing. So can looking at information about a website’s sponsoring organization.

•

Viewpoints. Whose viewpoint does the source represent? If there is more than one side to the issue, are both sides represented fairly? If only one side of an issue is presented,

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be sure to find another source that gives the other side of the story.

let’S coMpare Speaking of finding another source, one of the best ways to ensure that your information is reliable is to use multiple sources. That doesn’t mean two articles in the same journal. It could mean one book and one database article. Keep in mind that three sources are even better than two. Be suspicious of any information you find in only one source, especially if it contradicts information in your other sources. If your sources disagree, try to figure out why. Is it just a matter of opinion? If you’re studying what triggered the Civil War, for example, historians from a southern state may suggest different reasons than historians from northern states. This goes back to the question of viewpoint. The same facts can look different to different people. Another reason sources might disagree is if the experts are still undecided. Perhaps different researchers have come to different conclusions. Or is one of the sources wrong? Try to find additional sources to verify any conflicting information.

pUt it all toGetHer By now, you’ve pulled out only the best sources: the ones that are both relevant and reliable. That’s great! Make sure they’re all listed on your working bibliography. Remove any sources that you eliminated as irrelevant or unreliable.

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Armed with your working bibliography and your pile of sources, it’s time to get into the heart of your research project: the research. That’s right, you’re ready to crack open your sources to start reading them, thinking about them, and taking notes on them. And when you do, you’ll find that all this preliminary work of assessing and selecting sources has paid off. You’ll have sources that provide you with information you can use—and trust!

NOW YOU DO IT Let’s say you’ve been assigned to research the feeding habits of your favorite animal. No problem, right? First, access your library’s online catalog. Put together a Boolean or advanced search to bring up the most relevant results. Write down the call numbers of the three most promising books and head for the shelves to find them. Evaluate each for relevance. Which of the three seems most relevant to your topic? Why? Next, evaluate that source for reliability. Does it appear to be a credible source? Why do you think so? If not, try one of the other books. When you are done, search a database for your topic. Find one relevant and reliable article. Then do the same online to find a relevant and reliable website. Which search was easiest? Why?

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GLOSSARY advocate: a person who writes or speaks in support of a cause or a person artifact: a historical object, such as a tool or weapon, made by humans bias: judging or favoring something unfairly, based on outside influence or personal feelings, rather than judging it based on facts bibliography: a list of sources used in preparing a research project call number: a series of numbers and letters, based on a book’s subject or author, that identifies the book’s location on a library shelf consortium: a group of several libraries or other institutions working together or sharing resources credentials: evidence that a person is qualified for a specific position or level of authority credibility: the quality of being believable or trustworthy database: an electronic collection of articles or information, organized in ways that allow for searching and sorting jargon: the specialized vocabulary used by people in a specific profession journal: a magazine about a specific subject or industry. Journal articles are often scholarly in nature. microform: tiny images of document pages. A special machine makes the images large enough to read. objective: influenced by facts, not by emotions or bias periodical: a publication, such as a newspaper or magazine, that is published according to a regular schedule preliminary: an early stage of a project. When something is preliminary, it is not final. primary source: a source that is written or recorded at the time of an event and reveals firsthand information about the event. Primary sources include autobiographies, letters, and news accounts. synonym: a word that has the same (or similar) meaning as another word

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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Ballenger, Bruce. The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers. New York: Pearson Longman, 2004. George, Mary. The Elements of Library Research: What Every Student Needs to Know. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008. Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003. Hock, Randolph. The Extreme Searcher’s Internet Handbook. Medford, NJ: CyberAge Books, 2007. Toronto Public Library. The Research Virtuoso. Toronto: Annick, 2006. Turabian, Kate. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013.

Expand learning beyond the printed book. Download free, complementary educational resources for this book from our website, www.lerneresource.com.

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FURTHER INFORMATION Bodden, Valerie. Research and Synthesize Your Facts. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 2015. Once you’ve selected your sources, turn to this book to learn more about taking notes and outlining. ———. Writing a Research Paper. Mankato, MN: Creative Education, 2014. Learn more about the process of writing a research paper from start to finish. Classzone: Web Research Guide http://www.classzone.com/books/research_guide/page_build.cfm ?state=none&CFID=43318372&CFTOKEN=34434752 Take a quiz to find out how much you already know about using the Internet for research. Then learn even more skills to make you the best researcher around! The Kentucky Virtual Library Presents: How to Do Research http://www.kyvl.org/kids/homebase.html Check out this site’s section on searching for information to learn more about finding sources. Kids Computer Lab: Website Evaluation http://www.kidscomputerlab.org/index.php/research-skills /website-evaluation Try this site to learn more and to practice evaluating websites for relevance and reliability. Search Engines and Directories A to Z http://websearch.about.com/library/searchengine /blsearchenginesatoz.htm Use this list as a starting point to find a specialized search engine about your topic.

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INDEX

advanced search, 10–12, 15, 19 articles, 14–15, 26, 29–30 author credibility, 28–30, 33–34 bias, 34–35 bibliography, 31 blogs, 33 Boolean search, 9–10, 15, 19 call numbers, 13–14, 15 Dewey decimal system, 13, 15 domain name, 30

Google, 18–19, 21 googlejunior.com, 20 index, 24–26 interlibrary loan, 15 keyword list, 4, 7–8, 12, 24 keyword search, 8, 11 KidRex.org, 20 library catalog, 8–12 Library of Congress system, 13 online databases, 7, 14–15 publication information, 13, 29–31

relevant sources, 18–20, 23–27 research questions, 4, 7, 25 search engines, 8, 18–21 specialized search engines, 21 subject search, 11–12 table of contents, 23–25 websites, 17–20, 26–27, 29–34 Wikipedia, 32 working bibliography, 4, 7, 23, 25–27, 35–36

PHOTO ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The images in this book are used with the permission of: © iStockphoto.com/JazzIRT, p. 4; © Dr. Cloud/Shutterstock.com, p. 5; © Todd Strand/Independent Picture Service, pp. 6, 13, 18, 23, 24; © iStockphoto.com/Smitt, p. 7; © iStockphoto.com/zxcynosure, p. 8; © iStockphoto.com/diane39, p. 9; © Independent Picture Service, pp. 10, 21, 26, 29; © iStockphoto.com/forestc, p. 11; Library of Congress website, p. 12; © iStockphoto.com/ thebroker, p. 14; © iStockphoto.com/pepifoto, p. 15; © Denis Pepin/Dreamstime.com, p. 16; © Stockbyte/Thinkstock, p. 17; © Royalty-Free/CORBIS, p. 19; © RedChopsticks Batch 19/Glow Asia RF/Alamy, p. 20; © iStockphoto.com/eyewave, p. 22; © iStockphoto. com/Picsfive, p. 25; © iStockphoto.com/Nerthuz, p. 30; Wikipedia, p. 32; © iStockphoto. com/susafri, p. 34. Cover and interior backgrounds: © koosen/Shutterstock (brown background); © Mrs. Opossum/Shutterstock (zigzag pattern); © AKSANA SHUM/Shutterstock (diamond pattern); © AtthameeNi/Shutterstock (blue-lined graph paper); © Looper/Shutterstock (arrows); © AlexanderZam/Shutterstock (graph paper dots); © oleschwander/ Shutterstock (yellow lined paper dots).

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how do you find the right information sources for your research project?

Learn how to use search engines, library catalogs, and databases to find information. What makes a source reliable? What is bias? How does point of view affect a source’s reliability? Why do you need more than one source? This book will help you find, evaluate, and select the best sources for your assignment!

INFO WISE Analyze and Define the Assignment Assess and Select Your Sources Identify and Evaluate Advertising Research and Synthesize Your Facts Write and Revise Your Project

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