Helpful Hints for Evaluating Materials Using the Catalog Record
Although the online catalog does not itself evaluate materials, you can make a preliminary and tentative judgment by using the following rough rules of thumb:
Date of publication (Currency)
Author's authority (Authority)
Publisher's reputation (Authority)
Bibliographical note (Accuracy)
Edition number (Authority, Currency)
Content notes or summary when available (Purpose, Coverage)
Audience notes when available (Audience)
If you find information in these types of resources, you can usually consider them reliable - though you still need to judge their currency if the bibliography or webliography appears to be dated.
Books, articles, and audiovisual materials can probably be trusted if they appear on an authoritative, selective bibliograpy in the field. Occasionally you will find web sites included.
Links to web sites that appear on academic or major public library web sites can usually be trusted because a librarian somewhere has done that intial evaluation for you. Just be aware that some of these webliographies might be intended for an audience other than those who need scholarly or academic information. If you find on a college or university web site it's likely that will not be a problem. A public library has a diverse constituency, so be careful you are not looking at guides intended for children (as one example).
Reviews are most useful for books, audiovisual materials and web sites. Articles are rarely reviewed since most go through a peer review process before they are published by reputable journals.
Reviews can be far more helpful than selective bibliographies.
Reviewers are often as great or even greater authorities on a subject than are the authors of the materials they are reviewing.
Read several reviews on a source. If reviewers disagree among themselves as to the quality you must think for yourself and apply the criteria. Also, if the disagreement is more on interpretation of data rather than the data itself that can be useful for you.
Reviewers often compare new materials to other materials in the field, thus strengthening your bibliography with more materials to seek out.
There are many places to find reviews. General sources include:
Book Review Index
Book Review Digest
Academic Search Complete
Many specialized indexes and abstracts (both print and electronic) contain reviews of books in that field. These include, but are not limited to:
Art Online (art)
Literature Resource Center (literature, languages)
Science in Context (science)
Opposing Viewpoints in Context (pro and con information)