The key to finding relevant and credible sources related to your topic is sometimes just as simple as searching in the right place. Keep in mind that you’ll have an easier time finding certain types of information using different search tools.
Let’s look briefly at the differences between Google and LAVC Library’s website – which one seems like a more reliable place to find sources for your new information speech?
| LAVC Library Website | ||
|---|---|---|
| Types of Sources |
|
|
| Access | Published content like books, journal articles, and news often require payment to access. | All resources are paid for by the college and provided to students for FREE. |
| Authority | Can range from very good to very bad and can be difficult to verify. | Authority is easier to confirm. Many sources are published through formal processes including editing before release. Database contains filters to distinguish scholarly material, including limiting results to peer-reviewed journals. |
| Relevance | Results are based on search terms and popularity of links. Some searches include irrelevant or duplicate links. | Relevancy is controlled by using keywords. Users can focus search with limiters (e.g. subject, source type, etc.). Duplicate results are generally removed. |
As you can see, being a Valley College student comes with some perks! Having access to Library tools that aren’t available for free online means that you no longer have to rely solely on Google for your research and information needs.
What’s more, there’s a reassurance that comes with using Library databases because they do a lot of the evaluation work for you (see the Library's "Authority" box in the table above) – the books and articles in them have already gone through some level of vetting and it’s usually quite easy to separate the relevant, academic content (the sources you most likely want to include in your assignment) from everything else.
In other words, if you’re finding your information through the Library website rather than Google, then you can be more certain of the quality of your sources! Let's take a look at the next page for an introduction to using the LAVC Library website to find your sources.
