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There are a number of questions you should ask about a book before using it as a research resource. These questions focus on 2 areas:
Many scholarly journals publish book reviews. These reviews are written by experts, and they are a valuable tool for evaluating books.
Search for book reviews in the Library's Search All search engine. Many subject specific and multidisciplinary databases (Academic Search Premier, JSTOR, Project Muse) contain book reviews.
When using these database interfaces, limit your search results by article type - select "Book Reviews" to exclude other articles.
When evaluating the content of a book, you need to check if it is accurate and relevant.
Questions to ask:
Further Considerations:
Multiple editions indicate the book is well regarded enough to have been through revisions, and has been updated.
Scan the preface or the introduction for a statement on why the book was written and what the author hopes to accomplish with it. Often the author will also let you know what perspective of bias he or she brings to the topic.
Look for references and/or a bibliography (may be called Works Cited, Sources, etc.). This list shows you what kind of sources the author used to write the book.
Browse the Table of Contents to see what topics and subject areas the book covers. Look up one or two of your keywords in the index in the back of the book to see how much those terms are covered in the book. Is the entire book devoted to your topic? Is there a whole chapter? Or just a paragraph or two?
Search Library databases for book reviews to find out what others think of the author's book.
Look at the subject headings assigned to the book using COTR Catalogue or database record to help you check for content relevance.
When deciding if a book's content is current, check the publication date and the dates of the references used in the book's bibliography.
Exercise care when looking at a book's publication date. It can take up to two years for a book to be published. Be aware that some dates represent the year a book was republished (as a paperback, or after being out of print for some years).