INQUIRY PHASE 2: INVESTIGATING – KNOWLEDGE & UNDERSTANDING
NOTES:
Author: Who is responsible for the information?
• You must identify the person(s), groups, organizations, corporations, or
governments responsible for creating the content you are reading.
• Key terms to look for include author, editor, translator, and illustrator. Be specific
about who is responsible for what (e.g. article author, encyclopedia editor).
• If it’s a government document, the author is the government and department (e.g.
Canada. Health Canada., or United States National Institutes of Health. National
Cancer Institute.).
• It is possible for an organization (e.g. Canadian Dental Association) to be the
author.
Title: What is this “package” of information called?
• You must identify titles of both pieces and whole things.
• For example, if you are using an article in an encyclopedia, then you will need to
record both the title of the article (in quotation marks) and the title of the
encyclopedia (in italics).
• For example, if you are using an article in a reference book included in a
database, then you will need to record the title of the article (in quotation marks),
the title of the reference book (in italics), and the title of the database (in italics).
• Make sure you know which title is which!
Publisher
• Online encyclopedias and databases have publishers, such as Grolier Online,
Gale, and EBSCO.
• Websites created by individuals generally don’t have publishers.
• However, websites created by organizations (e.g. Canadian Cancer Society) do
have publishers – usually the organization.
Subscriber
• Some sources, including both websites and even some online encyclopedias and
databases, are freely available on the open web, so no subscription is necessary.
• Other sources, such as Grolier Online, EBSCO, and Thomson Gale, are
available only by subscription and so you must include this information. Are you
accessing the information through a subscription held by Pocock, Dufferin-Peel,
the Mississauga Library, or another agency? This information should be included
in the citation generated by the database.
• The subscription you use does not have anything to do with where you are when
you use it. You can sit in the Pocock library and access Pages of the Past
through the Mississauga Library subscription, or be at home and use Pocock’s
EBSCO subscription.
• Remember, if you need a username or password, then it’s a subscription.
Copyright Date
• Information found in online encyclopedias and databases will be dated.
• Websites might, or might not, be dated.
• The date might be called a copyright date, or a publication date, or a posting
date, or a revision date….
• The date might be just a year, or a month and year, or a specific date.
PSLIC / Program / Information Studies / Inquiry Phase 2: Investigating - Knowledge & Understanding
October 2011
B. Dillon, Teacher-Librarian
adapted from Research Success @ your library, ©2005, Toronto District School Board