# The Big 6 model

There is a commonly used model for solving information problems, called the Big6 (Berkowitz & Eisenberg, 1990):

1. What do you want to know?
   Determine your information question and the goal you want to achieve with the answer.
2. What are suitable resources?
   Brainstorm potential resources for finding your information and then create a shortlist.
3. How can you find the right information?
   Make use of different search strategies. For database search: determine the right keywords and really get to know your search engine.
4. How can you use and evaluate information?
   Quickly scan through the information you found and determine its suitability (for example with the CRAAP test). Only the information you have afterwards you really read.
5. How can you process the information?

   Process the information you found into a convincing answer to your question. Use a consistent style to refer to the sources you have found and avoid plagiarism.

6. What is the quality of your report?
   Evaluate whether you actually have the answer you need to continue, or whether you might have to answer other questions first to reach your goal. Is your answer indeed well substantiated? Are you sure (enough) to continue?

In this building block we give tips for step 1 to 3. For the third step we mainly focus on online literature research.