Library Services & Research

Modified from a
Presentation developed by
Jeremy Berberich
Types of Information
 Primary Resources - created by a
participant in the events being studied.

 Primary sources enable the researcher

to get as close as possible to what
actually happened during an event or
time period.
 experimental research results
Types of Information
 Secondary Resources –Analyze,
review, restate information from
primary resources
 books and articles that interpret or review
research works
Types of Information
 Tertiary Resources – Provide
overviews of topics by synthesizing
information gathered from other
resources
 Ex/ Encyclopedias, textbooks, almanacs
Types of Information
 Popular Resources
 information about culture and society.
 general information and commentary about
political, economic and cultural events.
 current statistical information of general
interest.
 popular opinions and beliefs

Ex/ Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated,

Business Magazines
Types of Information

 Scholarly Resources (Peer Reviewed)

 Information that has been vetted by
scholarly experts in the field.
 Provide scholarly analysis, description or
evaluation of events and ideas.
 Science, Nature, Journal of the American
Medical Association
 Topic specific journals such as : Journal of
Climate, Evolution, Marine Ecology
Where to Find Information
1. Physical Materials – Books, Journals,
Magazines, DVD’s
2. Library Research Databases –
EBSCOhost, ProQuest, Gale Infotrac,
Oxford Reference, etc.
3. The “Internet”
Internet
 Free to anyone with computer access
 No review standards with regard to
content – Anyone can create a web site
 Information is not organized
 Excellent resources and bad resources
 Quantity
 As of September 2008 there are
192,338,726 distinct web sites
 Billions of web pages
Evaluating Information /
Resources
 Who wrote the page? (Authority)
 Can be a person or an organization
 Do author’s credentials allow him/her to
speak with authority on the topic
 Look for biographical information: the
author's position, institutional affiliation
 What is the resource about? (Coverage)
 Does it cover all aspects of the issue
 How in-depth is the information
Evaluating Information /
Resources
 Where did they find the information
that is included in the resource?
(Accuracy)
 Are there references and documentation?
 How current is the information?
(Currency)
 Look for Publication Date or Last Updated
Date
 What is the purpose of this
information? (Objectivity)
 What is the point of view? Is it biased or
one sided?
Not Everything on the Web is Bad….Just
Finding it is Hard
 Government Websites (National Institutes
for Health, Center for Disease Control) -
.gov
 Non Profit Organizations (American
Cancer Society, American Academy of
Family Physicians, Mayo Clinic) - .org
 Think Tanks (Pew Research Center) - .org
or .edu
 University and College Web Sites
(University of Minnesota College of
Medicine WebAnatomy) - .edu