I AM THE GATEKEEPER

Research using Databases and Google

What’s the Information for?

What’s the purpose of the information?Persona

l Academic or

Professional

Google, Wikipedia,

etc.

Peers, colleagues,

friends, parents

Databases, Newspapers, Magazines, Scholarly

Journals, Encyclopedias, Texts, Statistics Canada,

etc.

Professionals, Specialists, Teachers, Professors, etc.

Carefully assessed websites based on specific credibility criteria (Google)

How does Google Work?

But the problem is…1. The higher the

frequency the use of the page, the more prominent the placement – even if the information is incorrect.

2. You become the “gatekeeper” for the credibility of a website.

3. Money talks.And Wikipedia?

Well…

If you’ve got the money…

Googling also gets you…

Databases!

Databases provide peer-edited, collated information.

The professional is the gatekeeper.

Googling: You are the gatekeeper

When using a broad search engine, you will need to assess the

credibility of the sites. Let’s give it a shot…

http://www.dhmo.org/http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

You have to evaluate the credibility of all sources: traditional and digital media

What’s the Criteria?

When Evaluating Websites, you need to think about the following:

Authority: • Who is the author?• Can you trust him/her? • What are his/her credentials?

Objectivity:• What is the author’s purpose?• Who is the intended audience?• Is the author biased?• Does the author use objective or

subjective language (e.g. racial slurs or stereotypes)

• Does the work contain facts, opinions, or propaganda?

What’s the Criteria?

When Evaluating Websites, you need to think about the following:

Accuracy:• Are the facts correct? Can you find

them in other research?• Are the opinions supported with data

or references to other work?

Completeness: • Does the work answer your

question completely?• Is there enough information to

make the source “valuable”?

What’s the Criteria?

When Evaluating Websites, you need to think about the following:

Currency: • What is the publication

date? • Is it current? Does it

matter if the information is current?

Relevancy: • Did you find the information you

needed for your topic?• Does it provide more detailed

information that is not related to your topic?

How am I supposed to remember? You can check out this slideshow on the Tutorials

Page of our Website. There are also a lot of other resources on there:

This slideshow How to Format an Essay for MLA with headings

(Word Document) How to Format a report in APA (video) How to Format a Word Document in MLA and APA

(video) APA and MLA Annotated Bibliography MLA and APA Quick Guides (Word Documents) Note-Taking Sheets (Word Document)

See?