Understanding Information:

Typography of Sources

ANTH 12ASanta Clara University

images courtesy creative commons

copyrightflickr user peacay &

deviantart user merayuyanik

Nicole Branch, MLISnbranch@scu.edu

Goals

• distinguish between different types of sources;

• practice applying evaluation criteria to information sources;

• begin to find sources for your assignment.

Source Types

• scholarly;

• trade (or practitioner);

• popular;

• reference.

breaking down types of sources

• author: experts (such as academics);

• audience: scholars and researchers in the field;

• purpose: make available original research;

• references: frequent citations or extensive bibliography.

scholarly;

• author: practicing professionals (e.g. teachers, nurses, business);

• audience: working professionals in that profession;

• purpose: share techniques or trends within profession or industry;

• references: sources sometimes cited.

• trade (or practitioner);

• author: journalist or freelance writer;

• audience: general, non-expert readers;

• purpose: entertain, persuade, or inform readers;

• references: no citations or bibliography.

• popular;

• author: usually editor, not author, listed;

• audience: general, non-expert readers;

• purpose: provide background information on a topic;

• references: sources either not cited or a short bibliography provided for further reading.

• reference;

Print Sources

• divide into groups;

• review one print source and determine the source type;

• share your source with the class.

analyze a print source

Research Use

• popular: inspiration or “pull quote;”

• reference: background information to develop your topic;

• trade (or practitioner): practical applications;

• scholarly: authoritative, reliable information.

using sources to develop a topic.

Online Sourcescategorizing types of websites

Online Sourcescategorizing types of websites

Online Sourcescategorizing types of websites

Finding Sources

• Working in pairs, find one popular and one scholarly source related to your assignment;

• Prepare a citation in AAA style and post to the class bulletin board.

Articles & Books

• Use the Find Articles tab to find popular and scholarly articles.

• Use the Find Books tab to find books.

AAA Citation

• Similar to Chicago citation style with some differences.

• Includes in-text citation and References cited list.

AAA Basic Format• In-text: Author's last name, the date of publication,

and the page number referenced. Put the page number after the date and separate with a colon.

(Fairley 2003:555-556)

• References cited: 1st line: Author/s; 2nd line: Date, Book Title, and publication info (Location, Publisher). For ebooks that you find in databases, include the name of the database (ex.Ebrary).

Lozada, Eriberto P. 

2001 God Aboveground: Catholic Church, Postsocialist State, and Transnational Processes in a Chinese Village. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10042899.

Understanding Information:

Typography of Sources

Questions?

images courtesy creative commons

copyrightflickr user peacay &

deviantart user merayuyanik

Nicole Branch, MLISnbranch@scu.edu