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How to Navigate the Library

This guide provides an introduction to library resources and how to find, evaluate, use, and cite them.

Evaluating Sources

Carefully evaluate all information, whether from a book, article, or website, by asking the following questions:

  • Who?  Who is the author of this source?
    • Are they qualified to write/speak on the subject?
    • Do you detect any bias on the author’s part in relation to the subject?
  • What? What is the source?
    • Does it have a title?
    • Is it a primary source, such as an original document or creative work or is it a secondary source, such as a report or analysis of primary sources?
    • Is it authoritative or trustworthy?
  • How?
    • How was the source produced?
    • Who is the publisher or sponsoring organization?
  • Where did you find the source?
    • Was it through a library’s databases or through an internet search engine that may list results in a biased or weighted manner?
  • When was the source published?
    • Has it been replaced or updated?

MLA Handbook. 8th ed., The Modern Language Association, 2016, pp. 11-12.

MLA also provides a checklist for evaluating sources. 

 

 

Using Google

Google can be helpful for your research. Here are some ways to make sure you're getting the best you can out of it:

  • Use Google Advanced Search: next to the search box, click on Advanced Search. Use AND, OR, and NOT.
  • Use Google Scholar: go up to the top of the Google page, and click on the link "more." Choose Scholar from the list. Google Scholar will bring you back scholarly journal articles; we have access to the ones with links on the right!
  • Use Google Books: in the same place you clicked for Scholar, try Books. Some books are available online, full-text, in PDF!
  • Use your skepticism: don't forget that Google is primarily a company that exists to make money. Try going to the second and third results pages.
  • Quotation Marks “” : Just like when searching in our databases you can use quotation marks to search of an exact set of words or name
    • “To infinity and beyond!”
  • Dashes - : Instead of the word “not” to remove a word from your search results google uses dashes before the word. Essentially you are subtracting the word from your search
    • Liberty - Justice
  • TILDE ~: You can  use the tilde to include synonyms in your search
    • Breakfast ~Pastry
  • SITE:www.query.com: This allows you to search only with in a specific site or type of site
    • SITE:GOV -Searches through only .gov websites
    • SITE: www.sc4.edu -Searches through only SC4.edu
  • Two Periods : This allows you to look for things within a range
    • Fashion 1940..1945: This gives you results that have the word fashion in it and any date between 1940 and 1945

How to Find Good Online Sources

how to choose a good online source

Image: MacMeekin, Mia. "How to Choose a Good Online Source." An Ethical Island, anethicalisland.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/how-do-you-choose-good-online-sources/. CC BY-ND-NC 1.0