 All right, so hello everyone. Again, welcome to the library's workshop, how to evaluate sources. We're going to introduce ourselves really quick. So my name is Grace Darrell. I use she her pronouns. I am a student success librarian, and my job mostly focuses on teaching, helping students and faculty with research, and then online learning. And I work with public speaking students. And then Brittany will introduce herself. Hey everyone, I'm Brittany Norwood. I also use she her pronouns. I'm a common librarian here at utk. And so a lot of my job involves research assistance. So if you ever use chat, I might be the person helping you out. I do programming so things like distress for success and stuff like that. I also do teaching. And I help at the public services desk. All right. So today we're going to be talking about a few things related to evaluating information and evaluating sources that you might come across as you're doing research. First, we're going to talk about what makes the source authoritative. We're also going to talk about like specific techniques you can use to evaluate sources and what questions you should ask as you're looking at information. And then we'll also give you some resources that you can refer to. So I also just want to kind of acknowledge the state of the world today. I know that there could be some anxiety and just like feelings about what's happening. So if you need to take a break, or if you need to leave, just know that this is going to be recorded later on. And you'll be able to see it at a later date. So just reminder to take care of yourself as a person today. And I will turn it over to Brittany. Okay everyone so I want you all to take a moment to look at this source. And tell me whether or not you think it is credible. Anything, any context clues you might find when you click on that link that Aaron just put in chat to tell us about it. And so let's give you about the reading time is three minutes so let's go with two because you don't need to read the whole article. Oh yes thank you grace feel free to put your thoughts in the chat. Anything that you noticed anything like that. I'm just going to kind of scroll through so you can kind of take a look. See this terrifying drop bear in its habitat. So feel free like Brittany said to just put anything in the chat. Maybe things you notice basically just tell us like, do you think this is real. Does this seem like an authoritative source of information. Feel free to drop your comments in chat. And also say I don't know. That's always an option. Okay so I'm seeing a no, somebody doesn't believe that it's credible. Somebody else doesn't think it's trustworthy. Okay let's go back to it because I believe that most you have caught on grace can you go back to the slide please. So this is definitely a fake article, although it was published by a reputable source Australian geographic. This was actually in April full state prank. If you look down here beside the author by line you can see that was published on April 1. There was a big internet hoax going on a while back where I don't know what it originated from but I am almost certain it came from the fact that Americans like to say that everything in Australia wants to kill you. So there was this joke going around that koalas or one of those things and they started calling them drop bears, and there was this huge internet hoax about them. And so this pay this paper quote decided to go a little bit further into that. The thing is is that, even though this is definitely just a satirical funny piece. I don't think that could definitely full people who weren't in on the joke didn't know this is what being published on April Fool's Day, and who are not very aware about Australian wildlife. And so part of the reason that we brought this up with you all today is we wanted you all to first have a bit of an experience, understanding what it'd be like to evaluate a source. And also to give you a primer for what we're going to be talking about in this later, this lesson so how authority is constructed, how you can, what techniques can you evaluate a source and what questions you need to be asking. So I will bring it over to Grace to talk about authority. So I think one of the things that Brittany just talked about is thinking about the context of the information that you're reading, and that you're looking at and she mentioned that this was published in a reputable source but was also published on April Fool's Day. So thinking about just the context in which information is created is actually really important when we think about evaluating sources, it's not just the information itself, but we also have to kind of take a step back and zoom out a little bit and think about how the information was created where it's published, kind of the context for it and also who's creating the information. So when we think about what makes a source authoritative, you might be familiar with being asked to use scholarly sources or peer reviewed sources, and you might be kind of thinking about those as, you know, like quote unquote, the, the most authoritative sources or these are the only sources that you can trust and everything else you can't trust, but really all types of sources can be authoritative. And if you're doing research on a more recent topic, or if you're answering a question that might benefit from other types of information like personal accounts, or having like some general facts or information statistics, then it might be helpful to consider other kinds of sources like social media, like a news article or a different secondary source. So it's important to remember that whatever kind of source you use, you need to take a second and pay attention to who the author is or who is sharing the information. And think about what information you're getting from that person from that group from those people, and if they're qualified to give that information and if we really trust them to give that information. So here I have three different examples of sources that you might use if you were researching the Flint water crisis. So there's a Twitter thread, a news article and a peer reviewed study, and we're just going to look at these individually for just a minute. So with primary sources, like social media accounts or social media posts. I think we definitely expect to get more personal information and lived experience which is totally fine and can be really useful for your research. So for example, Mari Copini is a 14 year old who has lived in Flint, Michigan throughout the water crisis. And this tweet she talks about. They changed the water source when she was six. So it's been about half of her life that she's been dealing with these issues. So she talks about her experiences with that and she has lived experience there. She's also done a lot of activist work and is actually known for writing a letter to President Obama, which prompted him to visit Flint, and see what was going on for himself. So I definitely trust her, you know, to give me information on what the experience is like living in that water crisis, what it's like to have the water source changed, what all of that looks like. I might also trust her to kind of keep me updated on what's going on with this issue in terms of maybe like local policy, because she lives in Flint and she's really invested in that. I also will keep in mind that with any information she shares right she has the personal stake and what happens there. And so that's just something for me to remember. When we look at secondary sources like news articles, we may expect to get like more facts and figures than we would. And you know, for example, like an activist social media account. So this article is for NPR, and it was written by a journalist Merrick Kennedy she has 11 years of journalism experience. So she's been a journalist for a long time. She knows how to write about events. And she's experienced and reporting important information in a way that considers all sides of the issue. This doesn't mean that she has no personal opinions or no personal stake in the matter, because she's a person she's coming at this from her own point of view as well. But it means that I trust her as a news writer and as a general rule NPR is a pretty reputable source. I also think it's important to say that like I would not necessarily trust this article, if the author were making like her own claims about the amounts of lead found in the water in Flint. If she were like trying to do research, I don't know that I would really trust her to do that because that's not her expertise and that's not her background. But as a scholarly source though, I do trust researchers to be able to comment on the like specific scientific facts of what's going on, because we expect with scholarly or peer reviewed sources to find original research that adds to the conversation. So researchers have advanced degrees and civil or environmental engineering. And so that means they have a lot of knowledge about the subject matter, and then they also have an understanding of how to conduct scientific research. So, I definitely again would trust them to tell me about their experiment conducting research on Flint's water and explain the results their study, and I'm more likely listen to their claims about this because they have their that expertise. So really just essentially the important thing is to just again think about where the information is coming from in addition to the actual information that's being shared. There can definitely be more than packier but just kind of as you're coming in contact with information stop and think if the authors or creators of the information have like the expertise to be talking about those things, or if they have anything maybe to be gained from sharing that information. I want to help you as you try to parse out what to pay attention to what to share what to ignore, and what to use in your research. So now Brittany is going to just give you some more information about some of the specifics for evaluating the sources that you find. Thank you grace so I'll go over what techniques that you can use. So, the first thing you want to do when you're evaluating the source is to examine the source you're looking at so examine that page itself. Gather information from the document that you can fact check and look for context clues like you know the publication date. People places things events referred to in the paper, their authors and their authors affiliations so on and forth so forth. So in other words you're gathering information from the document. So that you can go to other places to see if it adds up. So this is a success to lateral reading. So this might be one of the most important skills that you can learn from this lesson. So lateral reading means getting off of your source. So getting off the page or the article you're examining and looking at other sources to see if they back it up. So one example of this would be if there's an image in the source you're looking at and it's claiming it's a street in New York. You could do a reverse image search to see if it actually is a street in New York or if it's somewhere in Chicago. Look at those people those places things events facts that were from your source and go to other places to see if different sources back those things up. So that checking what you found. And you want to also make sure that you're amassing enough evidence that's supporting your claim that you feel confident in using it. And on the flip side, if you're finding a lot of information that is refuting what the source is saying, then that should give you more pause and wanting to and saying if you're wanting to use it or not. So a good rule of thumb is the more information that you're amassing about this topic that supporting it, the more credible it likely is. And finally, you want to make sure that you are asking questions about the sources. So one approach that a lot of students use and this sort of in this topic is called radar and Aaron just put a link in the chat to an article that talks about radar. But basically it's an acronym that stands for relevance authority date appearance and reason. Now, this is a really good technique to use but I also know that not everyone likes these sort of mnemonic devices to evaluate this sort of information. So I've broken down different questions you can ask, and why you want to ask them. So if you could go to the next slide for me please grace. So one of the first questions you want to ask is what is the sources purpose. Is it supposed to be serious. Is it satirical. Does it appear to be something that's very sensational eyes or could be propaganda. Now, we all know the person who has posted you know the piece from like the onion or satire from the New Yorker on to their social media account, and they think it's real and they're outraged. So this is what this question is getting at you want to make sure that the sources you're using are one being serious and to match up with what you are trying to study. Second, you want to ask what biases are present in this source. So something I want to consider are do the authors have a special interest in this project that could have impacted how they published it. So for example, are they working for, let's say a company that is producing toys, and this article is saying that. Oh yeah this toy has tons of developmental benefits for kids. That's okay she might want to give it some pause. So just because to authors might be doctors, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are doctors in a field that would make them an expert. So say if they are have PhDs in economics, but doesn't necessarily mean they know what they're talking about if they're trying to write on biology. And then think about how funding for this research could have impacted how the authors presented their findings. Now, we librarians here all the time about how these diet companies are can fund different research. And suddenly this research seems to point towards the diet having these amazing health benefits. Well, it doesn't necessarily mean the diet doesn't have amazing health benefits. But it does mean that if they are funding this research, then you need to find some sources that are not affiliated with that diet, or with opposing diets to see if the sources also backup what you're talking about. Ask if the source sites anything. Now, something you need to consider is that not every resource you're looking at needs a citation. Well, needs to cite things, what I mean. So for example, if you are reading an editorial by Anna went to work on her opinions on the latest Versace collection. She doesn't need necessarily be citing curavit articles to give you her opinion on this topic. Also, think about if you are examining lifestyle bloggers, and they are prevalence and the culture. And you are looking at a specific blog post that was very popular. If she this person is just you know talking about her day to day life she doesn't need to necessarily cite things or talk about what she's done. So that being said, a good rule of thumb to think about whether or not what source you're looking at needs to have cited things is to consider if it's listed any facts or fact based claims. If that is the case, and these fact based claims are not you know common knowledge, or based specifically on the research that this author has done in that particular source. So they need to be citing things. And if the source does have citations are the sources that this paper lists real incredible have the sources are listing been retracted or debunked. Is this is the content of the citation being accurately represented in this paper. So there's a whole host of things you can think about for that. I also want to ask how current the source is. So, could the information in it be outdated. Is it to need to be supported by others. And that doesn't necessarily mean that you can use a source, but it does mean that you should probably find some more sources in the middle ground that will help flesh out your paper. So if you ask if the source click bait or overly sensational, because if that's the case, then it's likely that they're trying to make you feel overly emotional so that you won't question what you're reading. And you also want to ask if the conclusions in the source are supported. So, you know, I can argue on and on about what two plus two is, but if I tell you in the conclusion that the answer is five, then, you know, obviously those things don't add up. I want to make sure that what the author is arguing does end up lining up with what their conclusions are. And now Grace, could you need to the next slide for me. Thank you. Now, I know that this can be a lot taken and can be overwhelming so I've linked this infographic here. It goes over a lot of what I just talked about like sensationalized headlines or misinterpreted results. I'll put a link to it in chat, and it's also on our information and media literacy guide that we'll be putting it in the next chapter in the next section. But basically this lists a bunch of things you consider when you are examining a scholarly source for information credibility. So something that you also might want to consider when you become more comfortable with your topic are whether or not these statistical analysis papers have used actually relevant to what they're wanting to search for. So things like if there's an unrepresented sample, or there's an a control group, so on and so forth. So, this sort of guide will act as a great reference for you moving forward. And now I will bring it on to Grace so she can talk about some different resources you can use that you can refer back to when you're evaluating your sources. All right, so, like Brittany was just saying, we have lots of different resources as you are evaluating as you're researching and trying to figure out. You know, if you have a question about a source, trying to figure out if it's a solid source for you to use. So here's some different resources that you can use for that. I do want to let you know that evaluating information and like asking these questions going through these methods can take, can take time and it might be really overwhelming and that's completely normal. And if you have like remember that this is like what Brittany and I are trained to do. You know this is what we get paid to do. We have a lot of training in this and this is kind of like our one of our areas of expertise. So, don't feel like you have to do this perfectly there is no perfect way to evaluate a source. These are just some different resources that can help you as you are working on that. Always feel free to ask us as librarians for help as you're working through this, we will talk about that again, and just a couple of minutes. But you know your approach might change based on the sources you're working with and the research you're doing and again it might just feel really unfamiliar you might want some support so feel free to, you know ask for help with evaluating sources. We definitely get asked to help students like form research questions and find sources, but we can also help you with evaluating your sources as well. So just a nice reminder that this is what we're here for and we're here to help you out with those kinds of things if you need. So, to end we're going to take a look at just a couple more sources just to kind of see if you have any, if you have any thoughts about any of these sources to kind of flesh out or flex those evaluation muscles. Erin just put links to all of them in the chat. So feel free to kind of look around see if there's anything that stands out to you if you have a question about any of these feel free to pop it into chat, and we'll just give you a minute to look around. And yeah, see if you see what questions you have about these or what like what you notice thoughts and feelings, if you can try out one of those questions that we talked about earlier to just take a minute. We also know that you only have, sorry. We also know that you only have a couple of minutes left so if you don't have feel like you have enough time to go over it right now. Just feel free to save these links do them in your spare time and you can always get back to me, and I can help you through it. I am just going to pull up the tree octopus, and we can maybe focus on this one because it is Brittany's favorite and Brittany introduced me to the tree octopus so. If you want to just look at one you can look at the tree octopus. Any thoughts, feelings, things that you notice from this page. This image right here is pretty intense. So interesting to pull up something that looks more scholarly. So thanks, Brittany for including a more like scholarly example. So just as a reminder, again, like this kind of thing happens with scholarly sources peer reviewed sources as well. I actually don't think that the source is peer reviewed but if you do like a quick search for any of these people. Actually was doing this because I had never heard of this so I was like well I actually don't know if this is I don't know anything about this kind of research I don't know if this is accurate or not. So just a little Google search and Wikipedia actually tells you that this specific paper, I googled this author right here that this paper has actually caused a lot of issues and problems. So that's the kind of thing again, like just a quick Google of an author or something can save you a lot of time, especially if you're looking at a source, and it feels completely overwhelming and you're like I don't even know where to begin to know if this is credible or not. So, yeah, so a big thing with this one is, if you look at the author's credentials. None of them really have expertise in this topic they were writing about. That's very true for all in economics and business, and they mentioned economics I think at the very end and their conclusion they talk about like the economic implications, but you know, it's not always just because somebody mentions their area of research doesn't always mean you know what they're talking about. So, again, just some examples for you to think about. We are always here to help you with evaluating sources any stage of research, whether you need to look for sources or evaluate the ones that you find Aaron just put the link to chat in her. Yeah, the link to chat in the chat. You can chat with librarians. Both Brittany and I both work on the chat. So, you might, you might be chatting with us at some point, but we can help you out with evaluating sources. You can also schedule one on one research help look at FAQs we have an FAQ list there text email call basically, however you prefer to get in touch. That's all we've got for you today. We're going to put the link to the survey and the chat as well. So if you need attendance record. That's where you will get that. Also, if you're watching this recording on YouTube this link will still be up so you're welcome to go in and give us feedback. If you have any questions, any of that. And we will stop the recording and go into Q&A.