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HI102: The Shaping of the West: Home


Primary Sources

The Avalon Project includes digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government.

These are some of the helpful links:

Search Summon for Books, Articles, and More!

Reference Books

Evaluating Websites

Evaluate your web sources! Do they pass the CRAAP test?

Currency: the timeliness of the information

When was the information published? Has the information been revised or updated recently? Does your topic require current information, or will older sources work as well? 

Relevance: the importance of the information for your needs

Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question? Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use? Would you be comfortable citing this source in your research paper? 

Authority: the source of the information

Who is the author? What are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations? Is the author qualified to write on the topic? Does the URL tell you anything about the author or source? examples: .com .edu .gov .org .net 

Accuracy: the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content

Where does the information come from? Is the information supported by evidence? Has it been reviewed or refereed? Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge? 

Purpose: the reason the information exists

What is the purpose of the information? Is it to inform, teach, sell, entertain or persuade? Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? Is the information fact, opinion or propaganda? Does the point of view appear objective and impartial? Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional or personal biases?

Source: Chico pdf