Library Resources & Services: Evaluating Information: Home

Why Evaluate?

After finding information that matches the topic and requirements of your research, you need to analyze & evaluate that information.

You need to think critically about your information sources.

Is it "good" information?

A set of criteria to help evaluate information sources includes:

Criteria	Details
When was it written or last updated? Currency	Was the information published or updated within the last 5 years? Is the information still current? Is currency important to the topic?
How useful is the information to your needs? Relevancy	Does the information relate to your topic? Is the information easy to understand, or does it use a lot of unfamiliar words? Is the article long enough to be of use? Is it too brief? If it too long?
Who is the source of the information? Authority	Is there an author listed? Is the author an expert on the topic? Does the author have a bias?
What is the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the information? Accuracy	Does the information have citations or footnotes to verify the information provided? Is the text well-written? Is the text free of spelling or grammatical errors?
Why does the information exist? Purpose	What is the purpose of the information? To inform? To persuade? To sell? Does the information contain facts? Or is providing an opinion?