F.I.R.S.T. Tutorial

Chapter Two: Matching Information Needs with Information Tools
In this chapter: Defining currency, coverage, and authority of information; learning about the basic types of research tools

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What's the difference?

Bryan has to write a research paper for his Psych 101 class. Here's how his professor, Dr. Allen, described his paper in an assignment sheet that she handed out to the class:

Research Paper

Write a 5 to 7-page paper about a psychology topic of your choice. You must find at least 5 sources on your topic other than your textbook. You must have a variety of sources in your bibliography, no more than 2 of any type. Possible types of sources include:

    books

   articles from scholarly journals, magazines and/or newspapers

    websites

P.S. A good place to start is the library!

First of all, why does Professor Allen want Bryan to use so many different types of sources? Why wouldn't finding some websites or some books be good enough? These types of information sources must differ in some way. In fact, information sources differ in several ways. We'll consider the most important of these briefly: currency - how up-to-date is this information? coverage - how comprehensive is this information? authority - how trustworthy is this information?