# Module 4 : How reliable is the information found?

An information search results in a number of web pages or documents. When selecting information sources, two factors are critical. First, the information source should be appropriate for the required information. A student who gives a lecture about nutrition and health at a middle school will not benefit greatly from researching a dissertation or thesis, as they contain information that is far too scientific. Furthermore, should you only have access to a DVD player in the presentation room, a videotape will not be of much help.

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The second crucial aspect to pay attention to is the reliability of the information source. How objective is the information source? How expert is it? Does it refer to any underlying sources? If so, are you able to find them to verify whether you have arrived at the same conclusion? To make a good selection from your results list, you will need to be able to evaluate these results based on their quality and relevance. There are many reasons some sources are appropriate whereas others are not.

The sources you encounter in the library are generally reliable. When purchasing sources, library staff members pay careful attention to, among other things, the sources’ reliability. In addition, many of these sources are from organizations, such as educational publishers, that want to be reliable and try to provide the highest-quality product possible using an editorial team and experts. Yet, the information can be biased because the creators are thinking from a particular scientific perspective, a philosophy, a commercial viewpoint and so forth.

Therefore, always make sure to use different sources and to compare them with one another.