GOV 100  

CC image courtesy of carlosramon86 on Flickr

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Reference Desk

Monday - Thursday:

9am - 9pm

Friday: 9am - 6pm 

Sunday: 12noon - 9pm

Roving Reference @ Sawyer Center

Tuesdays: 12noon - 3:30pm

Stop by the desk or call 603-526-3687

What are you looking for in a source?

C=Currency. How current is the article, book, or website?  Is it up to date?  How do you know?

R=Relevance. How close does this material come to discussing your actual topic?

A=Authority. Do you know whether the source was written by someone who really knows what they are talking about?  How can you tell?

A=Accuracy. Can you verify the facts that you find in this source? Have they backed themselves up with convincing evidence?  Can you confirm the information in another source?

P=Purpose.  Why was this article written, or this web site created?  Are they giving information, selling a product, or persuading you to agree with an opinion?

Remember, PRE-RESEARCHING is part of the process of DECIDING on a TOPIC to explore.  Pre-Researching also helps you identify keywords, which are the KEY to successful article searching.

Need to narrow your topic?  are you finding too many articles that are only somewhat relevant? Focus your topic on one or more of the following:

• A particular time period or event
• A specific geographic area or region
• A particular person, group of people, or population
• One aspect of the topic (e.g. aesthetic, economic, historical, political, psychological, sociological,etc.)
• One issue or point related to the topic

Is your topic too narrow? are you having trouble finding any articles about your topic?  Or is your topic so recent that you are having difficulty finding enough information?  Broaden your search by:

• Exploring related topics or issues
• Expanding the time period covered
• Expanding the people, social group, or population considered
• Expanding the geographic region discussed
• Comparing or contrasting one topic, issue, social group, or geographic region with another