 This video is intended for students in accent ministry formation in the Graduate School of Theology at Oklahoma Christian University. If by chance it finds application in an audience beyond the intended scope, I'm thrilled and hope the advice presented here is helpful. Briefly, let's think about how to evaluate and annotate the resources that you find. Accent ministry formation students, per your syllabus, successful completion of library instruction is demonstrated in an annotated bibliography. Requirements are as follows. Locate at least two articles and two books and provide your analysis of their scholarly level. Explain how you plan to use them either in your interpretive essay or in your theology of ministry essay. And provide annotations per my Mr. Rosser's instruction. Okay, so the directions are clear enough and you're ready to get started, but just in case you'd like more explanation, stay with me for a few minutes as we discuss annotations. First of all, I've chosen a topic for my interpretive essay, the Ministry of Lydia to the Early Missionaries. Now, using the suggestions offered in the assigned videos, searching ATLA for biblical scripture and enhancing research with Google Books and WorldCat, I found this book. Now, please note that you will be annotating two books and two articles. Let's annotate the book that I found. An annotation is really just a brief capture of the aboutness of an information resource, in this case, a book or article that will be helpful to your research. And as I am presenting it, an annotation should answer three questions and maybe a fourth. Who, what, how, and where? Let me explain. When you write an annotation, think in terms of three, perhaps four brief sentences. The first sentence should provide an evaluation of the resource, the credibility of its author, and perhaps its currency. In other words, I'm answering the question, who? For example, let's consider the book that I found, Women in the Acts of the Apostles. I located a copy of the book, read the preface and the introduction, and then searched the article databases for critical reviews of the book that might offer insight. And based on this investigation, here is my concise evaluation, the first sentence of my annotation. Published in 1995, scholar Ivoni Richter-Reimer offers a fresh reading of the Women of Early Christianity as presented in the Book of Acts, viewed through the bifocal lenses of both liberation and feminist criticism. Now I know what you're thinking. You could have written that sentence right off the title page. Yes, this is true. No new information apart from what can be gleaned from the title page is really presented by this sentence. However, in order to evaluate the credibility of the author and her work, let me remind you of my process. I read the preface and introduction of the book. I located and read several critical reviews of the book. And I searched for more information about the author online. I paid attention to the publisher. And in the case of an article, I'd want to actually read the article. And because of this process, I can use the word scholar with veracity. And I feel very confident in my claim that she provides a fresh perspective on women in the Book of Acts. I've established the who by this first sentence in my annotation. And in case you're wondering, one way to find critical book reviews is to access the EBSCO databases, click Choose Databases, and though it's lazy, choose Select All. And then search by the author's name and a segment of the title as keywords. Now as I create my annotated bibliography, I format a paper according to Trabian with a title page and provide the full citation of the work in bibliography style, and then follow the citation with my annotation like this. Now let's think about the second sentence by which we answer the question, what? Here, a concise articulation of the author's thesis and approach will best capture the aboutness of the book. So in this case, I'll say, despite these explicit lenses, her robust historical approach draws on rich primary and extra biblical resources to better situate the women of Acts in their actual context. Her insights are often hammer blows against traditional assumptions about women like Lydia, for example, who is not wealthy as has been assumed, but a freed slave and foreigner, a subsistence worker in a despised profession whose association with Christian missionaries was both risky and perhaps costly. Note that I actually had to do a bit of reading in the book of self in order to make this type of statement. Note also that the sentence is a bit long. I've managed the length of the sentence with the use of a semicolon, and I've worked hard to be as clear, concise and compelling as possible while still providing a sense of the book's aboutness. I'll add this sentence to my first and have now answered the questions, who and what. Now, we need to think about how this resource will be useful in light of my topic. Remember, my topic is the Ministry of Lydia to the early missionaries. I've already begun moving in this direction by mentioning Lydia as an example in the previous sentence. Now, I need to describe how this particular resource will inform my research. For example, insights developed from Richter Reimers' description of Lydia's historical situation and her discussion of the implications of her hospitality will provide a helpful new perspective on the traditional readings of Lydia I will encounter in this research. Note that the use of first person is appropriate in this third sentence. I'm describing how this resource will be useful to me. So, I add the third sentence to my working annotation. Finally, although it's not necessary, a helpful habit to develop is to conclude with a brief statement that answers the question, where, where can I find access to this resource? So, I'll conclude my annotation with, this book is available in print in the Beam Library and provide the call number. And now, my annotation is complete. And now that this citation with its annotation is complete, it's on to the next. My annotation is 160 words. Annotations that are between 150 and 200 words are probably both robust and concise enough to evaluate the book, to capture its aboutness, and describe its usefulness. In fact, the rubric we will use to evaluate your own annotations is based on these three aspects. Does your annotation sufficiently, yet concisely, answer the who, the what, and the how of your resource? If you have any questions about this assignment, about finding resources, or need help in any way, feel free to contact me. And I hope you'll take advantage of the other video research guides brought to you by the Beam Library at Oklahoma Christian University.