Skills in Accessing, Finding & Reviewing Information - Safari

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1 . Understanding information 1. Introduction 2. What is information? 3. The information age 4. Everyday uses 5. Types of information 6. Information universe 7. Mapping sources 8. Identifying needs 9. Summary

2 . Unpacking information 1. Introduction 2. Information journeys 3. Supply chain 4. Research supply chain 5. Categorising information 6. Shape of the literature 7. Finding information 8. Summary

3 . Planning a search 1. Introduction 2. Describing information 3. Databases 4. Library catalogues 5. World Wide Web 6. Which to use? 7. Planning a search 8. Choosing resources 9. Summary

4 . Searching for information 1. Introduction 2. Basic principles 3. Databases 4. Library catalogues 5. World Wide Web 6. Tracking progress 7. Your subject 8. Summary

5 . Evaluating information 1. Introduction 2. Information quality 3. Presentation 4. Relevance 5. Objectivity 6. Method 7. Provenance 8. Timeliness 9. Summary

6 . Organising information 1. Introduction 2. Why organise? 3. Ways to organise 4. Social bookmarks 5. Citing references 6. Bibliographies 7. Summary

7 . Where do I go from here 1. Introduction 2. Sharing information 3. Electronic communication 4. Keeping up-to-date 5. Summary

Topic 7 Provenance

The provenance of a piece of information – that is, where it comes from and who produced it – may provide more useful clues to help you decide about its reliability. Provenance provides ‘credentials’ for a piece of information and supports its status and perceived value. Being able to identify the author, sponsoring body or source of your information is therefore very important.

Reflection activity Is provenance a good way to judge quality?

Some people might argue that it is unfair to judge information just by who produced it or where it was produced. They would argue that information should be judged on its own merit.

Before we look further at this topic, what do you think? Can you think of reasons why it would be good to know the author and origins of an article or a website?

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