Library Research in Microbiology

Prepared by Anne Turhollow for Biology 521L and Biology 596
Fall 2002

Evaluating What You Find

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 Web of Science listed in the Searching for Information section.; Broaden your search; if you restricted it to a taxonomic group, drop that restriction.

It is important to determine your criteria for evaluating the relevance of retrieved books and journal articles. These can include:

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.