Evaluating Sources

Between print sources, electronic databases, and internet sites, there is an incalculable amount of information available to you as a student researching a particular subject. Merely consulting these sources does not constitute research. A crucial part of the research process is evaluating your sources, and choosing those sources that best support your own scholarship. In this chapter, we will provide you with some tools you can use to evaluate sources, in the form of questions you should ask of every source you consider, even those sources that have been approved by your teacher or the librarian. Then we will review the sources available to you in the Edgemont library, and organize them according to their authority, depth and comprehensiveness. Finally, we will explore and evaluate some of the most frequently used sources available to you on the internet.