Information Literacy Toolkit

Many assignments require peer-reviewed articles; however, there are other credible resources available through the libraries. Students may need guidance identifying what type of resource they are using and how using the library resources is different from searching Google. They may also need guidance on using the language scholars are using. 

One of the questions you will ask yourself during the search process is What type of information will best help me answer my questions?  Thinking about the type of information you are looking for will determine how you search for that information, where you look for it, and what tools you use.

Examples of different types of information and where to find it include:

• statistics
  
  
• primary sources/ first person experiences 
  
  
• technical reports or patents
  
  
• scholarly literature (articles)
  
  
• opinion polls
  
  
• news stories
  
  
• overviews of a topic (books)
  
  
• government documents/ reports /hearings

You may also want to consider sources outside of your traditional library such as archives and Special Collections, interviewing knowledgable individuals, businesses, etc.

Also consider the publication cycle of information. If you are seeking information on a very current or timely topic, then scholarly articles and books addressing the topic may not be available, but newspaper articles and popular articles may be reporting on the topic because they can be published much faster.

Social media and breaking news coverage will be available on very current topics, but due to the nature of breaking news, accuracy of the information may vary widely.

For more information on understanding the publication cycle, you can can take the online tutorial on Defining and Comparing Different Publication Types.