Meet Reeves!-- Students

Ask Here PA is a 24/7 chat reference service for Pennsylvania residents. You will be connected to a librarian who can help you with many of your research questions, but remember that he or she does NOT work at Seton Hill and therefore will not have access to our databases or information about your SHU library account.

Use the CRAP test.

¨      Currency—consider:

§  When the source was created or last updated?

§  Is this current enough for your topic (some fields change more rapidly than others)?

¨      Reliability (the content itself)

§  Are the sources of the information documented (cited)?

§  Is the content mostly opinion or mostly verifiable information?

§  Is it complete?

§  “Triangulate” sources (find 3 or so that say the same thing) to determine this

¨      Authority (the author or creator)

§  Who created this resource?

§  Is the creator an expert on this topic?

§  Does the creator have any institutional affiliations?

¨      Purpose (the publishing source and/or medium)

§  Why was the resource created?

§  Who is the intended audience?

§  Does the publishing source have an apparent agenda or bias?

§  Are there ads? A lot of them?

The Writing Center in Administration Room 502 is happy to provide feedback to students who are working on papers and other projects. You can drop by the Center and schedule a time to meet with a peer tutor one-on-one. Appointments are strongly encouraged.

You may contact me directly or feel free contact the library's front desk at 724-838-4291 to speak to a librarian on duty. Any of the Reeves librarians will be happy to help you with your research.

For additional video tutorials, check out our YouTube channel.