People trying to fool you are everywhere.
How can you tell a good source, from a trickster?
Use this Guide to discover ways to know the trickster and see through their words.
How do you know if something that you read or view is accurate?
Check out the author. Is there an About page? Look online or on Wikipedia for the author or group whether or not you find this information on the About page. No About Page? Find another source, this one is not credible. Next take what you learn from the About page. Can you find more information about the source? Beware, people often lie on their About page.
Look online, look at Wikipedia. Wikipedia usually has a page on most institutions and provides any bias or controversies.
Who are they? Think Tanks (entities that are created to persuade you in a particular direction) will often have names that sound reputable or similar to an group that is. Find multiple sources to get a range of opinions.
A better way of finding sources is to search the ILCC Library's Databases and check the option, "Scholar/peer-reviewed". This brings back articles by experts in their field that are reviewed by other experts in the field. These are credible sources.
How do you know where to find information for your school project?
Searching online may give you millions of results in a second. But search engines rank these results based upon the number of times the webpage is viewed. You have no way of knowing if the source is an authority on the subject. Instead, search in the ILCC Resources for credible sources. We have Books, eBooks, Articles from Databases and other reliable sources. These also provide the citation for the sources--search engines do not. You need to provide the citation to receive full credit on your assignment.
Isn't everything online? Why would I use library resources?
Again, library resources are credible, reliable, relevant, authoritative, and provide the citation needed for full credit on the assignment. Sources found online are unlikely to offer any of these.
What does your professor mean by "scholarly" or "peer-reviewed"?
Scholarly means that it was written by an expert in the field. For example, it may be a cancer researcher reporting on the results of their use of a cancer drug treatment. Peer-reviewed means that it was reviewed by an expert in the field and found to be a good, credible source.
What does it mean to be Information Literate? How about Media Literate?
Information or Media Literate means that you are able to take information from sources such as newspapers, websites, Facebook posts, and television shows and know if it is a credible source and worthy of investigation, usage, or being cited in your paper or project.