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FYE 112 | Spring 2025

Determine your information need, select keywords, choose a database, evaluate information.

Determine Your Information Need

An effective way to focus your search for information is to first determine your information need.

Do you need...

  • Background information?
  • A general overview?
  • Comprehensive information?
  • A quick reference to a specific fact?
  • Statistics?
  • In-depth information on a narrow topic?

Consider also...

  • Who is my audience?
  • What are my assignment guidelines?
  • How current is my topic?  Has enough time passed that there will be enough published information available?

Determining what you need (books, journal articles, newspaper articles, encyclopedias) will help focus where you should be searching.

Information Source Types

Source Type

Publication

Time Frame

Use For

Characteristics

Authors

Where to Find

 

Social Media

 

Seconds, Minutes

 

Immediacy.  Breaks the story.

Unedited.  Information may be incomplete, false, or biased

 

Anyone

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok

 

Multi-Media

 

Days, Months, Years

Background information, news, opinion, primary sources, pop culture. An integration of text, graphics, still and moving images, animation, sounds, and any other medium where  information can be stored, transmitted and processed digitally.

Anyone, Professionals

WorldCat

 

Newspapers

 

Day

Excellent for current information, useful for local information. Useful for historical research. 9th-12 grade levels, current events.  Does not use technical language. Professional Journalists Access World News

 

Magazines

 

Days, Weeks

An overview of your topic, as well as information on popular culture and current events. Colorful, entertaining.   Contain ads. may be found on news stands. Usually cover current topics. Professional Journalists

Readers' Guide Full Text Mega

 

Conference Proceedings

 

Weeks, Months

Research in progress. Scholarly articles written by the same authors may be published at a later date. 

 

Academic or field-specific terminology used.  Presents new research.

 

Specialists in the Field, Scholars

 

Proceedings

 

Scholarly Journal Articles

 

Months, Year/s

 

Written in technical discipline specific. Is rarely shorter than 10 pages.  Includes data, tables, charts, a bibliography, and when presenting research, an introduction, methods section, results, discussion, conclusions.

Specialists in the Field, Scholars Academic Search Ultimate

 

 

Books

 

 

 

 

Year/s

Overview of topic, in-depth coverage of topic.  Check book's index and table of contents to locate information relevant to your topic. Lengthy; may be an in-depth fully developed argument, or may be an edited collection of authored articles.  May be published by a general publisher (HarperCollins) or by an academic press (in which case they would be called a monograph). Specialists, Journalists, Scholars

LVC Catalog

 

Encyclopedias or Reference Sources

 

Years

Topic ideas, overview of topic, background information, quick facts.  Check their bibliographies to identify additional core sources of information. Articles are often compilations from many contributors. Authoritative and concise information sources.  They provide comprehensive background information on a topic.

 

Specialists, Scholars

 

Credo Reference

 

Government Documents

 

Year/s

Statistics, overview of topic, quick facts, in-depth analysis, research reports. Government documents may be found in many forms:  they are books, pamphlets, or other materials published by a federal, state, or local government agency.  Government Agency Staff, Researchers

 

govinfo

 

Webpages

 

Seconds, Minutes, Months, Years

Topic ideas, overview of topic, opinions, information from organizations and commercial businesses. Wide variety of source types. Offers many perspectives. Evaluate sources carefully as many are not  fact-checked.

 

Anyone

 

Google or Google Scholar