History Resources

Why Evaluate?

The main reason you have to evaluate materials is because you want to be certain that you are utilizing the best materials available on a particular topic.  If you do not carefully evaluate materials and turn in faulty information associated with papers and projects you submit to be graded your credibility will suffer and then, in turn, your grades will suffer.  Professors have a keen sense of the merit of your materials you select to support your papers and projects and careful evaluation of the materials you rely upon will ensure that you will be turning in papers and projects supported by material that your professors feel has merit.  

Careful attention to evaluation is key because the flood of information that is currently available is simply overwhelming.  Evaluation provides you with a way of breaking things down and understanding what exactly it is that you are trying to utilize.  You often have to take a step back and really think about what you are trying to accomplish.  The most important thing to understand is what does your assignment direct you to do or what type of resource does your assignment allow you to use?  Are you trying to find a book, article, or web site?  Some professors will even allow you to use dvds, blogs, wikis, or other modern inventions of the electronic age.  However, and regardless, of the type of resource used you have to understand its merit and quality.  This guide will help you in that task.  Click on a tab above or read below to begin to better understand how to evaluate.

Using the same mnemonic, CRAAP¹, recommended under the Using Free Internet Tab from above will really help you evaluate any resource you come across.  The mnemonic has been slightly modified for print resources here.

To help in the evaluation process of materials and to determine if you are using a high quality resource first figure out several things with respect to this material before using it.  Determine its Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose, which is referred to, again, as the CRAAP model for evaluating resources.  Answering these specific questions will give you a clear indication of the scholarly value of the resource or information retrieved.

Quick Steps to Evaluating Resources

Step I. Applying CRAAP:

Currency:

Is the information up-to-date or older?  Remember, you may have a date range you have to pay attention to. In history this may not be as much of a concern because you just might want something from the time period of the event being researched.  This is very much acceptable in history research.

Relevance:

What do the authors want you to know?  Are you the targeted audience?  What is the value of the material in comparison to the range of information resources available on this topic?

Authority/Credibility:

Who is the author? What type of authority does this person have?  Do they have credentials to be speaking on the topic?  For instance, does the author have a PhD or are they simply a journalist writing on the topic?  Asking this will specifically speak to how knowledgeable one will be on a topic.  Generally, the higher quality material will be in academic or scholarly publications.

Publications like:

American Historical Review

American Studies

Austrian Studies

German Studies Review

Jewish History

Journal of American History

Here are links to the history publications available through the Mardigian Library in subject order:  History Journals.

Accuracy:

Can the accuracy of the material be verified?  Is there documentation for the information provided in the form of a bibliography?  How complete is the resource?  Are there gaps?  Was the material peer-reviewed?  Is the content biased or skewed?  Does the text follow basic rules of grammar, spelling, and literary composition?

Purpose:

Identify the type of publication you are using.  Is it for the purposes of

• Research or Scholarship
  

• Reference/Information/Overview

• Entertainment
  

You can likely use material from any of these types of publications but things are weighted differently.  The Research or Scholarship publications are more credible and so on. 

Step II. Evaluate Your Answers

• Were you able to answer all of the questions?

• How many "yes" answers?

• Do you still have unanswered questions such as bibliographic information or content issues?       

The resources that receive more favorable responses from you are more than likely useful for research.  If you have any questions about the validity of a particular resource, please ask a librarian.

Acknowledgements:

¹The CRAAP model was suggested to me by a colleague, Dr. Joy Beatty, and the CRAAP Test from the California State University, Chico was reworked to be applied exclusively to Internet materials for this guide.