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HIST 3379: Cultural History of New Mexico: Searching & Evaluation

HIST 3379: Cultural History of New Mexico

Whenever you are searching for information ask yourself:

  • What am I looking for?
    • Background information, general overview, very specific or specialized information/analysis
  • Where should I look for this information?
    • Where you look impacts the types of materials you will find.
    • Search engines looking at open web, vs. library catalog, vs. general database, vs.specialized database
      • Library resources are generally: curated by people who assume that patrons will be doing academic research
        • Library resources will tell you what kind of content they contain.
        • There will usually be contextual information about the material.
      • Search results on the open web (materials you find when you use a search engine like Google) are not curated by people, and are algorithmically determined, often with a emphasis on popularity and engagement over accuracy.
        • You will have to figure out the contextual information and determine accuracy.
  • How am I searching?
    • Should I use the Simple/Basic search or the Advanced search option?
    • Natural language search using key words, or subject term search,or Boolean search (AND, OR, NOT)
  • Who is responsible for this information?
    • Who created this information? Who published it? Who is hosting it online?

How to evaluate online information: SIFT

  • STOP reminds you of two things.
    • First, when you first hit a page or post and start to read it — STOP.
    • Ask yourself whether you know the website or source of the information, and what the reputation of both the claim and the website is
  • Investigate the source
    • ..the idea here is that you want to know what you’re reading before you read it
  • Find trusted coverage
    • Sometimes .... You care about the claim the article is making. You want to know if it is true or false. You want to know if it represents a consensus viewpoint, or if it is the subject of much disagreement.
    • In this case, your best strategy may be to ignore the source that reached you, and look for trusted reporting or analysis on the claim.
  • Trace claims, quotes, and media back to the original context.
    • Much of what we find on the internet has been stripped of context. ..In these cases we’ll have you trace the claim, quote, or media back to the source, so you can see it in it’s original context and get a sense if the version you saw was accurately presented.

It’s about REcontextualizing

There’s a theme that runs through all of these moves: they are about reconstructing the necessary context to read, view, or listen to digital content effectively.