The most useful criteria to evaluate sources of information

There are a huge number of criteria to evaluate sources of information, be they online or not.

I think the most exaustive suggestions about judging the information we come across is those from San Diego State University. On this web site you can find whatever kind of information you want about how to search sources and where to look for answers. There is also a list of authors who provide a list of help evaluating web documents.

When I wrote my tesina for my first degree I used only books as sources. I searched for books that were the most recent, but with the advice of my teacher. As I didn't use many web sources for any other researchs or writings I'll surely feel a bit unsure when I'll have to use them, because I haven't enough experience about them.

Evaluating sources is an important skill we need all the time. We have to decide where to look, what clues to search for, and what to accept. We may be overwhelmed with too much information or too little. Learning how to evaluate effectively is a skill we need both for our course papers and our life. When writing research papers, we will also be evaluating sources as we search for information. We will need to make decisions about what to search for, where to look, and once we've found material on your topic, whether to use it in our paper.

I think that in the future to evaluate sorces of information I'll ask myself for instance "What kind of information am I looking for?", "Where would be a likely place to look?", "Which sources are likely to be most useful to you? Libraries? The Internet? Academic periodicals? Newspapers? Government records?".

For web sources the most relevant criteria to look at I think are those of the site of the University of San Diego, that I cited before:

• Who is responsible for publishing the information provided by the source? What are the credentials and affiliation or sponsorship of any named individuals or organizations? How objective, reliable, and authoritative are they? Is the author or contact person listed with addresses (street, e-mail)?
  
• What can be said about the content, context, style, structure, completeness and accuracy of the information provided by the source? Are any conclusions offered? If so, based on what evidence and supported by what primary and secondary documentation? What is implied by the content? Are diverse perspectives represented? Is the content relevant to your information needs?
  
• When was the information provided by the source published? Is the information provided by the source in its original form or has it been revised? Is this information timely and is it updated regularly?
  
• Where else can the information provided by the source be found? Is this information authentic? Is this information unique or has it been copied?
  
• Why was the information provided by the source published? What are the perspectives, opinions, assumptions and biases of whoever is responsible for this information? Is anything being sold? Who is the intended audience?

An initial evaluation of books and articles can be done by examining their bibliographic citations provided in library catalogs (such as the PAC) or periodical indexes and databases, containing brief author, publisher and date of publication information. Once I've found the book or article I need I'll look for additional information about the author or the publisher. If little or no biographical information is provided about the author(s), I can ask a reference librarian for Research Assistance.

I think the suggestions given from the University of San Diego are totally exaustive and interesting! I think I'll use them, as I have no idea of useful criteria to judge the information I come across on the web. With these advices you can find a limited number of information: the Internet is so crowed of information that often you don't need!!!

I Know that I cited almost criteria from the site of the University of San Diego, but I really don't know how to judge information I find on the web and I think they are the most useful!!!

I'm looking forward to see what are the criteria you use to judge sources of information!

Bye bye,

Letizia