Library Research in Marine Ecology
Prepared by Anne turhollow for Biology 517
Spring 2001
| Overview Background Information Searching for Information Journal Articles Books Web Resources Presenting Your Findings Evaluating What You Find Your Search Your Articles, etc. Need Help? |
Evaluating What You Find
Are You Finished with Your Search?
As you survey your reams of photocopies and stacks of books, how can you tell if you're done searching or need to find more material?
- Do you find that your references keep repeating themselves?
- You're done if you have searched several indexes and you just keep turning
up the same books and journal articles.
- Are there key articles that most (if not all) your materials mention?
- Make sure you find those.
- Are you overwhelmed by the amount of information?
- Narrow or focus your topic by geographic location, etc.
- Are there any gaps in the material?
- Go back to the indexes
and see if you can locate material just in those limited areas.
- Do you not have enough information?
- Consider using another journal
index or using a citation
index listed in the Searching for Information in Journals section.
- Broaden your search; if you restricted it to a taxonomic group, drop that restriction.
Evaluating What You Find
It is important to determine your criteria for evaluating the relevance of retrieved books and journal articles. These can include:
- Authority of the author(s)
- Date of publication
- Type of publication
- Relevance of content
- Intended audience
- References cited
- Cited or reviewed by others
Some additional websites with more information about evaluation of resources (especially Internet resources) include:
- Evaluating Sources of Information
- Provides an overview of evaluating both print and electronic resources.
- How to Critically Analyze Information Sources
- Focus is on how to evaluate print resources.
- ICYouSee: T is for Thinking
- A tutorial by John R. Henderson of the Ithaca College Library on critically
evaluating Internet materials.
- Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources
- A comprehensive set of questions for evaluating web resources. By Esther
Grassian, UCLA College Library.
- Thinking Critically about Discipline-Based World Wide Web Resources
- Also by Esther Grassian, this site deals with evaluating web sites as opposed to a single document.
