Library and Information Week - Roots of Democracy
Welcome to Library and Information Week 2024
Library and Information Week celebrates the work that library and information workers do all around Australia. This year's theme 'Roots of Democracy' focuses on accessing and sharing information openly.
Finding and Evaluating Resources
When deciding on the content to use, especially scholarly resources, it is important that you look at the authority, objectivity, and purpose of the content.
For example, if you find a journal article, you will want to check if the article has been peer-reviewed. The benefits of peer-reviewed resources is that they have undergone a quality check before they are published. This check usually involves a review by an editor and one or more subject matter specialists before publication.
For further information on the peer review process as well as checking the authority, objectivity, and purpose of content, see the Evaluating Resources page.
As part of the publication process, scholarly material is reviewed to help avoid any overt bias or falsity. Whereas non-academic online content is often published by anyone and without any review on what they have written. This means incorrect information may be published without being picked up on. The platforms that contain non-academic content are also more prone to author bias. Therefore, you will want to check the authority of the author, publisher, and citations used before using these materials. For further information on this process, see the Evaluating Resources page.
Many of the search techniques that you use in Library Search or our databases, can also be used in non-academic searches.
Imagine you are looking to buy a car. Most search engines, including Google, will allow you to search for a phrase using double quotation marks:
e.g. “Toyota corolla” prices
Boolean operators can also be used.
In the example above, the space between the phrase, Toyota corolla, and the word, prices automatically includes AND between terms.
You could also include OR between terms to search for more than one term.
e.g. "Toyota corolla" OR " Hyundai Elantra"
Another useful function in Google is that you can limit a search to a specific type of website.
e.g. “car registration” site:qld.gov.au
This will search for the phrase, car registration, but only on sites that include the domain qld.gov.au – Queensland government websites.
Publishing your research Open Access
Generative AI, especially Large Language Models (LLMs), have many limitations and potential that must be considered before using them as a part of your research and study. Due to the way they compile information from multiple sources of varying quality and accuracy, you need to apply caution to using the provided information. Compare the output to more reliable sources such as your lecture material or other scholarly publications on the topic. A great way to think about content generated by LLMs is similar to Wikipedia, it can be useful as a starting point to get a better understanding of a topic, but should not be directly quoted or used as a primary source.
More information on this topic is available from MyCQU for students and StaffNet for staff.
Some library databases have integrated AI tools on the platform itself. These can be used without breaching copyright.
Below is a list of the databases with AI tools:
- ProQuest
- EbscoHost
More databases are adding AI tools over time, so it is worth checking on your preferred databases to see if they have added new tools.
Explore Further
Open Access and Creative Commons
Learn how to utilise Open Access and Creative Commons content.
Scholarly Publishing and Metrics
Learn about open access publishing, read and publish agreements, and research metrics.
Evaluating Resources
Questions to ask yourself when you are evaluating information you’ve found for inclusion in your assignments or research.
