Evaluating Sources
Evaluating your source is an important part of academic work. You must make sure your sources are credible and reliable to ensure you're getting the most accurate information. We'll do an evaluation below but if you'd like more detail or how to evaluate academic articles and websites, in addition to books, check out this detailed LibGuide on evaluating sources using the DAPPR test.
Click here to print a copy of the DAPPR handout with details on category
Click here to watch a video on how to evaluate a book and its author
Let's evaluate the book we've chosen with the DAPPR method. DAPPR is an acronym for the factors we look at for every source.
D- Date
A- Author
P- Publisher
P- Purpose
R- Relevance
Below is the DAPPR rubric. To evaluate the book, we look at the handout and circle the appropriate description in each row. At the end, we add up the points and see where the book lands on the scale at the bottom.
The book we chose for this assignment is Dust Bowl Migrants in the American Imagination by Charles J. Shindo. The information for DAPPR can either be found in the book or in the book record we found when we searched the catalog.
This book was published in 1997
This information is older, but not out of date. Often, information in the last 5 years is best, but for historical events, older is fine. We'll circle the box for 2 points in the Date row on the DAPPR rubric.
Let's research the author next and see are credible they are or what makes them an expert on this topic. The author of our book is Charles J Shindo and there are a few ways we can research him- the database author search or a Google education website search.
Database Author Search
The best way is using one (or all) of the following:
You can either click the links to get to each site or find the databases by doing the following:
1. Go to the library homepage and click "A-Z Database List".
2. Click on the drop down labeled "All Vendors/ Providers" and select "Gale"
3. Then click the letters needed to find each database
- B- Biography in Context
- L- Literature Resource Center
- G- Gale Books & Authors OR G for Gale Literature
In the example below, we're clicking G to start with Gale Books & Authors.
4. Enter the author's name in the search box at the top (make sure to select "author" from drop down menu, instead of the default "title"). Then click the magnifying glass icon to search or press "enter" key.
This author had no results in the Gale Books and Authors database, so we'll have to search them using another method
Continue the same process for the other three databases to find information on your author. If no biographical information is found, try the Google Education Site Search below.
Google Education Site Search
Go to Google and search the authors name with the additional keywords "site:.edu". This limiter will ensure you only receive results from websites ending in ".edu"
Here are our search results:
We're going to click on the first link and see if the information meets our needs. Here we find our that Charles Shindo is a a professor of history at Louisiana State University and teaches multiple courses, such as "United States History Since 1865". His BA is from University of Southern CA (1984). He obtained his MA from California State University Fullerton (1987), and his Ph.D from the University of Rochester (1992). He's won a few awards. He also has written an academic article and two books- one of which is our chosen book- Dust Bowl Migrants in the American Imagination. We also can see his picture and contact information if we'd like to reach out with any questions about the book.
This website almost gives us all the information we need. We'd also like to find his date of birth for this assignment. Sometimes that can be found in the book if the author has a bio somewhere inside (usually inside flap). In this case, we don't see one. At this point, I would recommend emailing or speaking with your professor to see if they are okay with using another website or if the assignment is okay to submit without the date of birth.
If the professor says that they are okay with using a .com website (or any other source) for this info, we're going to find the information and then do our best to confirm its accuracy. In this particular instance, we're going to use an encyclopedia website called Prabook. This is a .com website which we are using as a last resort, and we're going to make sure to verify the information we have falls in line with the information provided by the website. After searching his name and viewing the bio, we see that the information we have from a verified .edu website matches Prabook (i.e. education, career, and achievements) which is a very good sign. We then use only the information we need from this website- the date of birth. Again, as this is a .com website, it should be stated in your paper that this is the best information available to us for this fact. Below is the information from Prabook.
Once, we have all the information about the author, we can rate them on our DAPPR rubric. In this case, the author has credentials to show they are an expert in the field, such as the degrees in history, work at the university, and extensive experience in the topic, so we're going to give them a top score.
Next, we're going to look at the publisher of the text. This information can be found in the front few pages of the book or in the library catalog record.
The publisher is a university press, so we're doing to give a top score.
You'll find the purpose of the book when you read it. Upon analyzing the work, you will decide if it's unbiased scholarship (presentation of facts), if the writer is explaining a new take on the topic (mostly facts with some opinion of the author), if they trying to sell or persuade you of something while reading, or if it simply a book for entertainment. This particular book has in-depth factual knowledge, with some opinion as the author is looking at some art regarding the Dust Bowl era and casting a different light on the interpretation. In this case, we're doing to give this book a rating of 2 on the DAPPR rubric.
Lastly, we look at relevance for the book. Does the book you're reading cite where most of it's information is coming from? If the majority of things are cited, as in this case, then it would receive a top score. If only 50% of the information was cited, then the second score, and even less, then it would receive an even smaller score.
Finally, we add up the scores we gave each category.
D- Date- 2
A- Author- 3
P- Publisher- 3
P- Purpose- 2
R- Relevance- 3
The final score is 13, and when we look at the key at the bottom of the rubric, we can see the determination falls within the 13-15 range, making this "an excellent source for college-level research"
Don't forget- author and publisher are particularly weighty for the scores, so pay special attention to those categories.
Congratulations! You have evaluated your book!