English 155: Professor Wells

Evaluating Web Sites

What to look for:

• Authority - Who is the author? What's his/her background, education, experience? Would you trust the organizations they are affiliated with? Can you find contact information? What is the domain name (eg .com, .edu, .org, .gov, .net)?
• Content & Coverage - What does it cover? Is it aimed at experts? Is the information relevant?
• Timeliness - When was it written? When was it last updated? Is the information still current?
• Accuracy - Can you check the information somewhere else? (Especially important for things like Wikipedia!) Has someone else reviewed the content? Does it include a list of works cited or other clues to how the information was found?
• Objectivity - Does the site have a bias? Are there advertisements or links to organizations that might be a clue? What does the domain name tell you about objectivity?

Narrow or Broaden Your Search (Boolean Searching)

Use AND between terms to narrow your search

example: television and violence and children

Use OR and/or truncate (*, ?) words to broaden your search

example: children or youth or adolescents
example: child* (will find child, children, etc.)

Note: check online help for the correct truncation symbol

Finding Books in the Library Catalog

Use the Catalog search box located in the center of the library's homepage to search for books. To search for books on your topic, use the default Keyword search option and enter your search terms in the For box.

If you have a specific book or author in mind, before you enter your search terms in the For box, change the Search type from Keyword to:

• Title - to look for a specific book.
• Author - to look for books by a specific author.

Finding Articles

You can use these databases or any others listed on the database pages; this list is only a suggestion of places to start your research. If the full-text is not available for the article you want to see, click the button or the "Find Text" link to see if the full-text is available in another database.

• Multi-subject databases like Academic Search Elite or General OneFile
• Education-specific databases like ERIC

Popular and Scholarly Sources

Scholarly Sources: Authors are authorities in their fields. Authors cite their sources in endnotes, footnotes, or bibliographies. Individual issues have little or no advertising. Articles must go through a peer-review or refeered process. Articles are usually reports on scholarly research. Illustrations usually take the form of charts and graphs. Articles use jargon of the discipline.

Popular Magazines and Newspapers: Authors are magazine staff members or free lance writers. Authors often mention sources, but rarely formally cite them in bibliographies. Individual issues contain numerous advertisements. There is no peer-review process. Articles are meant to inform and entertain. Illustrations may be numerous and colorful. Language is geared to the general adult audience (no specialized knowledge of jargon needed).

Finding Statistics

To find statistics to support your argument, check out the guide to Finding Statistics about Education. It includes the National Center for Education Statistics.

Citing Your Sources

The library website provides sample citations for MLA, APA, and other citation styles on the Citing Your Sources page.

Contact information

If you have questions as you do your research, you can contact me directly at danielle.skaggs@csun.edu or 818-677-6808. For help 24/7, go to Ask-A- Librarian.

Return to Danielle's homepage

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