Using the Internet - Early Childhood Education - Prof. Weinberger - Harold L. Drimmer Library Research Guides at Westchester Community College Library

Evaluating Your Sources

Source Evaluation Checklist

Use this checklist to evaluate the information sources you discover as a result of performing a search.

Purpose

• What is the purpose or motivation for the source? (E.g., educational, commercial,

entertainment, or promotional.)

• Is it trying to sell you something? How easy is it to differentiate advertisement from content in

the source?

• Based on your knowledge, is the information fact, opinion, or propaganda?

• Who is the intended audience for the information, and how is this fact reflected in the

organization and presentation of the material?

Authority

• Is the author identifiable?

• What is the author's background? (E.g., experience, credentials, and occupation, and has he or

she published anything else on the topic?)

• Does the author cite his or her sources?

Currency

• When was the resource last updated or revised, and how often is it updated?

Reliability

How stable does the resource seem to be? The resource’s dependability (particularly in the case of

Web sites) is important if it is going to be cited as a source or recommended for use by others.

• For Web sites, do most of the links on the page work?

• From your evaluation of currency and authority, do you think the resource will be there the

next time you visit it?

Coverage

• What information is included or omitted?

• Is the resource completed or under construction?

These are not the only criteria you will need to look at. Depending on what your professor has asked

you for and on your research needs, you may need to look for certain kinds of material. In academic

research in particular, your professor may ask you to find scholarly, peer-reviewed, or primary sources

Internet Resources

NYC Department of Education - Early Childhood
National Education Association - Early Childhood
The National Education Association is engaged in a range of issues that affect public schools, students, and professional school employees.
Should Early Childhood Education Be Mandatory?
From Debate.org
Does Pre-K Work?
Brookings experts weigh in on America’s early childhood education debate
National Center for Educational Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations.

Using Google Scholar

Google Scholar, http://scholar.google.com/, is a way to search the internet for scholarly information on a given topic. Unlike a normal Google search, Google Scholar searches for scholarly information provided by academic publishers, professional societies, universities, repositories and scholarly organizations. The types of information Google Scholar provides include:

Peer-reviewed journal articles
Unpublished scholarly articles
Masters theses and other degree based work
Citations for books that may provide limited access to the text of the book.
Technical reports

For the most part, Google Scholar provides a citation to articles without full-text access. If you use Google Scholar on campus you can see links to full text articles via library databases.

If you are using Google Scholar off campus, you will need to link Google Scholar to the full-text resources of Westchester Community College. You can consult our online guide on how to link WCC resources.

Early Childhood Education - Prof. Weinberger: Using the Internet

Evaluating Your Sources

Internet Resources

Using Google Scholar

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