CRAAP Test by librarian Sarah Blakelee (2004), CSU Chico.
The process of evaluating a source includes examining the source itself and examining other sources.
Use the CRAAP Test to help you determine if the sources you found are accurate and reliable. Keep in mind that the following list is not static or complete. Different criteria will be more or less important depending on your situation or need.
* indicates criteria is for web sources only
Currency: The timeliness of the information.
Relevance: The importance of the information for your needs.
Authority: The source of the information.
Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.
Purpose: The reason the information exists.
This video provides a graduated approach to how students might select relevant articles from a list of results. The four steps include reading the titles, reading the abstracts of the promising titles and downloading those articles, sorting the articles based on relevance, and then reading those articles. Use of the dating example works well for undergraduates. Because of the branding at the end of the video, it might not be great in a LibGuide; however, the instruction librarian can also show this video in class and/or talk about/demo these strategies with some other advice. The video has some library branding throughout, and the first part of the video is better than the latter half. Start the video at 0:02, and stop the video at 4:35 to skip over the majority of the library branding and specific library information.
P.R.O.V.E.N. Source Evaluation by librarian Ellen Carey (2021), Santa Barbara City College, is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
The process of evaluating a source includes examining the source itself & examining other sources by:
The questions below will help you think critically during the source evaluation process:
1Based on Caulfield, Mike. "Four Moves and a Habit." Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers, 2017.
North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries, 2:08