first draft second draft website book journal presentation final report

task

This book evaluation is the second of the three source evaluations will be due during the semester.
  1. This must be an evaluation of an entire book, not just one chapter or section. This book can be in print or online, but if it is online it must be
    • This book can be a reference source e.g., from the Davis Reference section) or an ordinary book on a particular topic (e.g., Digital Libraries by William Y. Arms).

I encourage you to discuss search strategies in class and on the blog as you explore various sources.

Discuss the process

To facilitate the identification of appropriate sources, you must participate in the discussion on information sources on the class blog.

  • You are required to post your three source evaluations to our class blog as postings.
  • In addition, you are required to comment on at least one posting from a classmate per source evaluation assignment (that means three in all).
    • For example, student A may post an evaluation of the indexes published by the Public Affairs Information Service.
    • Since this source is also pertinent to student B's research question, student B takes a look at this source, and posts additional evaluative comments about the source.
  • You may, of course, post additional comments about sources or methods for searching them, and may respond to as many postings as you wish.

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condition

The website evaluation should include the following 7 parts:

  1. A complete citation for the book
    1. This citation must be in American Psychological Association (APA) format. APA is the citation format most commonly used in the social sciences. If you are not familiar with this format, you should locate a style guide. The following links may be helpful with this format
    2. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is the definitive guide to APA format. Every reasonably sized library should have a copy of this
  2. Strategy for finding the book
    1. How did you find the book?
    2. What database, book, bibliography, etc. did you find this source in? (if appropriate)
    3. What was your rationale for selecting that book? In other words, why did you think that book would be useful for your research?
  3. Rationale for selection of the book
    1. Why did you think that the book would be useful for your research, before you reviewed it? (Whether or not the book in fact turned out to be useful; you'll discuss that later.)
  4. General evaluation of the book
    1. The authority, scope, intended audience, and currency or timeliness of the book.
    2. Select the evaluation criteria that are most appropriate for evaluating this particular book.
    3. List each and write a short explanation of how well the book fulfills the criteria.
    4. You will find these resources helpful in writing this section of the portfolio entry
      •  For All Entries
      • For Articles and Reference Books
        • Ormondroyd, J., Engle, M., & Cosgrave, T. (1996). How to critically analyze information sources. Reference Services Division, Cornell University Library. Covers author, date of publication, edition or revision, publisher, title of journal, intended audiences
      • For Reference Books
        • Lane, N., Chisholm, M, & Mateer, C. (2000). Techniques for student research. New York: Neal-Schuman. Chapter 9, Selecting Reference Works, 73-96. Covers geographic coverage, language, dates of coverage, discipline or profession, scope, inclusiveness, comprehensiveness, authority, audience, treatment, relation to similar works, format
    5. Other criteria you might choose to use
      • audience, primary vs. secondary, scholarly vs. popular, logical consistency, search features, functionality
  5. Example strategies used to search within the book
    1. How did you find information within the book?
    2. What terms did you use to search the book?
    3. How did you combine these terms?
    4. What other strategies did you use to find information within the book?
    5. What were the results of your searches within the book?
    6. Keep in mind that many searches are conducted in multiple sessions, so your search strategy should evolve as you work with a book over time. For each book, your evaluation must include what you consider to be an exemplary search strategy for that book and a brief discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the strategy. This discussion will conclude with a brief summary of your evaluation of the information actually yielded by the book.
  6. A brief summary of the information yielded by the book. This follows up your rationale for selecting the book: your rationale for selection is why you thought that the book would be useful before you reviewed it; this section should explain how your opinion of the book changed once you actually reviewed it. This section should answer the following questions
    1. What information does the book as a whole contain?
    2. What information does the book contain that is relevant to your research question?
    3. How does the book help you (or not) to answer your research question?
  7. A revised draft of your research question, if one is needed

    1. After reviewing each book, your research question may change radically or slightly. Include your revised research question and a brief description of the reason(s) for the revision. As the semester progresses your question will come to be better formed, so it is likely that it will change less as you review more books. If your research question does not change after reviewing a book, write that up as well and give an explanation of why the book did not cause you to revise your question.

Here is an example of a book evaluation.

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standard

Points: 10% of course grade per source evaluation = 30% for all three evaluations

The book evaluation should include:

  • an evaluation of an appropriate book (e.g., an entire book rather than a single chapter or section)
  • a discussion of your strategy for finding the source
  • a discussion of your rationale for selecting the source
  • a discussion of example strategies that you used to search within the source
  • a brief summary of the information yielded by the source
  • an evaluation of the source according to the evaluation criteria discussed in class, and any other criteria that are appropriate
  • appropriate spelling, grammar, & writing style

The standards which will be used for grading this task are listed on the downloadable gradesheet.

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