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News: Regular Semester Hours

 

Identifying Scholarly Resources

Clues for Books

1.     Publisher

a.     Use university press, professional organizations

b.     Avoid trade publishers & mass market items

c.     Check organizational or denominational affiliation: see Writer’s Market (R070.5), Literary Market Place (R070.509) and Christian Writer’s Market Guide (R070.52)

2.     Author/creator

a.     Reputation – authority, veracity

b.     Education – in the field or not

c.     Occupation

d.     Experience

e.     Affiliations

3.     Cited References

a.     Are there cited references

b.     Who is being cited

c.     How frequently are the cited references cited elsewhere

d.     Who has cited this work

e.     Are primary sources cited

f.      Is this a primary source

4.     Content

a.     Accuracy – biases

b.     Comprehensiveness

c.     Currency

d.     Table of Contents

e.     Indexing

f.      Bibliography

g.     Cited References

h.     Audience appropriate

i.       Quality of graphics, illustrations, etc.

5.     Primary Sources

a.     Original words – novels, poems, plays, speeches, interviews, letters, case studies, test data, findings from surveys, archaeological drawings, etc.

b.     Original works – experiments, films, drawings, designs, paintings, music, sculptures, etc.

6.     Secondary Sources

a.     Works about somebody or about their work(s)

b.     Criticisms, critiques, commentaries, reviews of primary sources

7.     Tertiary Sources

a.     Books and articles based on secondary sources; a synthesis and explanation for a popular audience

b.     Encyclopedias, textbooks, college term papers

 

Additional Research Guides: (also available on the Reference Desk)

·       Basic Steps in Library Research – six simple steps explaining the research process

·       From Cite to Hand - Books – how to actually obtain books and other materials whether or not the library owns them

·       From Cite to Hand - Articles – how to actually obtain magazine and journal articles whether or not the library owns them

·       Finding Articles in Two, sometime Three, OK maybe Four Easy Steps

·       Identifying Scholarly Periodicals- clues for distinguishing between magazines, journals and peer reviewed journals

·       Evaluating Resources – easy way to help evaluate the usefulness of research resources both paper and electronic

·       Research Worksheet – designed to make research simpler by working step by step through the research process

·       Copyright for Higher Education– help in understanding the copyright law as it pertains to faculty and students

© Janet Tillman/The Master’s College, 2004, permission is granted for non-profit educational use; any reproduction or modification should include this statement.