Selecting and Locating the Best Sources
Where do I start? Which source is best? I did a Web search and got 1,346,896 web sites! Help!!
Where DO you start to find information on your topic? Breaking down the task makes it much more manageable. Here’’s a good way to start:
1. Decide which types of resources will best meet your needs. Consider print (both paper and online) and human resources:
• Print (paper and online) Books, encyclopedias, magazines, professional journals, primary sources such as diaries, newspapers, personal journals, maps, photographs.
• Human sources: Practitioners and researchers such as doctors, teachers, university professors, other professionals and any other expert in the field of study. Laymen (ordinary people) can be useful when you are conducting a survey, just need opinions, or if you are finding oral history of an area.You may be a resource if you are conducting an experiment or making observation.
2. Choose the best and most authoritative sources.
How do you know which are best? Here are considerations:
Answer this question: “Which sources would the leading academics (researchers and university professors) use?”
• Look at the bibliographies and additional readings in the back of textbooks and other books on the subject.
• Use academic, refereed journals, read the bibliographies in articles that pertain to your subject.
• Ask your teacher or other knowledgeable people for ideas on the best sources.
• Read reviews of books if you are not sure. Ask your librarian where you can obtain these reviews.
• Which titles appear in several sources? Those will be most likely be the best and most authoritative.
3. Choosing the best human resources (people who are experts in the subject you are studying):
• Devise interview questions before you contact your human sources.
Find people at the following places:
• Institutions of higher education
• Businesses
• Professional agencies such as law and accounting offices
• Nonprofit organizations such as Red Cross and United Way
• Service agencies such as hospitals, clinics, and police stations, and so forth.