When doing research, you will encounter a wide variety of sources that can be found in a variety of formats. You need to be able to understand how information is delivered and the way you access it makes a difference in how you cite it, evaluate it, and how it fits your needs.
| Information is delivered through: | Information is accessed through: |
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These lists are not comprehensive, but when you start to think about it you will see that something like the news can be delivered through Cable Television, an Internet Broadcast, a Podcast, the Radio, a Tweet, or a print Newspaper. On the other hand, an image can be an infographic, a photograph of an event, a screenshot of a tweet, a photo of a work of art, or a picture of a Newspaper page. It can get tricky, so you need to be able to identify what you are using, where it is coming from, and how to evaluate it.
There are several different methods you can use to evaluate sources. One very simple one is the rhetorical triangle:
You can evaluate information based on the author, the target audience, and the purpose for which it is published.
Look at the competence and expertise of the author in the area they are writing.
Consider who the information is written for and whether you fit into that group.
Use the context of where the information is found as well as the context within which is was written.
Many books can be found free online, either in part or in whole. You may find books that are already in the public domain through an online search or you will find books in our online catalog that are accessed online
This page appears to be a website, as all the words are typed up on the page with links to different sections. This is done to make a book easy to search within and navigate within. This book is also offered as an ePub and Kindle, among other formats. Because this book is in the public domain, it can be offered for free.
This book is presented using a viewer that allows you to flip through the pages. Even though it has a link and is contained within a website, it is still a book on a website. Again, this title is in the public domain which allows it to be present for free.
This library database contains ebooks from various publishers across a wide range of academic disciplines. Books can be read online in your web browser or can be checked out and downloaded for offline reading. The library has multiple databases that provide eBooks.