Information Literacy
Step 4: Evaluate
Evaluate
• Have you found ‘good’ information? Look
closely at the information your search has
retrieved to see if it helps answer your
question.
Learning outcomes
This unit aims to support you to develop skills
associated with the Evaluate step of the
information literacy cycle. It will enable you
to:
• Identify the qualities of ‘good’ information
including: reliability, relevance, authority,
timeliness and potential sources of bias
• ‘Quality check’ retrieved information for
these qualities
PROMPT
Good decisions are based on good information, but how do you know
when the information you’ve found is ‘good’?
The Open University suggest using the PROMPT approach to evaluating
information.
PROMPT
• Presentation – is the information presented in a clear and readable
way?
• Relevance – is the information appropriate and relevant to the
purpose in hand?
• Objectivity – is the content balanced or is there some bias?
• Method – how was the information gathered together?
• Provenance – who or what originated the information and are they
reliable sources?
• Timeliness – is the information up to date and does this matter in
our context?
Presentation
Relevance
Objectivity
Method
Provenance
Timeliness
‘Good’ information
‘Bad’ information

is readable

is messy

is well written

is difficult to follow


is clearly set out
covers a similar subject area or topic to your search question


has spelling & grammatical mistakes
is too detailed

is too general


presents a balanced view

relates to a country or region outside the scope of your information
need.
seems to present a biased view

acknowledges other ‘sides’ to the argument

expresses opinions as if they were facts

uses an appropriate method for the purpose

uses a method that is poorly constructed & designed

uses a representative sample size

uses a very small sample and generalises findings to the wider
population.

comes from a peer reviewed journal*

doesn’t have any author information

is published by a well known voluntary organisation with a
history of research output.

is produced by a company with a vested interest in the research

comes from a professional journal

comes from a quality assured source (e.g SSKS)

is of a time relevant to your information need

doesn’t have any date information

is the most up to date information on the condition / topic
you’re interested in.

is obsolete and has been superseded by new research.
Pros and cons of explicit and implicit knowledge
• In unit 2 (Source) we described different
sources of information and explained that
knowledge can be both explicit and implicit.
• To recap, explicit knowledge is knowledge
that has been articulated in, for example,
journal articles, maps, diagrams, documents
and procedures.
• Implicit knowledge is knowledge that people
carry in their heads for example, know-how
and experience.
Explicit and implicit knowledge: pros and cons
Pros
Explicit knowledge sources 
(e.g documents)

Implicit knowledge
sources
(e.g a colleague)
Cons
Can quickly share and disseminate e.g.
email a section to colleagues.

Can take time to access e.g. if you need
to get your computer, log in, search etc.
Information in documents, journal
articles and books tends to be quality
assured and assessed for accuracy.

Requires storage.

Can be time-consuming and expensive
to produce.

Can be difficult to identify – how do you
know who knows what?

Can be difficult to capture.

Can be influenced by personal
experience.

Information is clearly articulated.

Information can be stored for future use.

Can be fast and easy to access.
Scenario 1
• A colleague is planning to try a new
intervention for children with attachment
disorder in long-term residential care
based on a research article she found on
the Internet. She asks if you could review
it.
Your evaluation…
You evaluate the information and note that:
• The information is dated 1995 so you would want to find out
if there was any more up to date information.
• The majority of participants involved in the study were in
temporary rather than long-term residential care.
• Almost half of the participants dropped out before the end
of the study.
• The study didn’t use a control group so there was no way to
compare the participants who were receiving the
intervention with those who weren’t.
Based on your evaluation you’re able to advise your colleague
against relying on this information to support the use of this
intervention.
Scenario 2
• You’re the manager of a residential care home
and are reviewing the way residents are cared
for at night. You want to find some guidance on
night-time care to meet the needs of your staff
and residents. You find a report on the Joseph
Rowntree Foundation website (www.jrf.org.uk)
called ‘Supporting older people in care homes
at night’ (Kerr et al., 2008).
Your evaluation…
You evaluate it and note that:
•
•
•
•
•
The report comes from a reliable source - Joseph Rowntree Foundation is
a charity with a history of research output relating to social care & social
policy. The site has a useful ‘About Us’ page and a publications area so you
can see what else they have produced.
The report was written in April 2008 so you know it’s up to date.
The study included three care homes so its findings are not based on just
one home.
Research findings are clearly summarised but there is also a detailed
account of the study and the project, including contact information for
further information.
The report provides clearly explained recommendations for staff, relatives
and residents.
Based on your evaluation, you conclude that the information you’ve found is
reliable and you are comfortable using it in planning the changes you want
to make to your service.
Activity 1
Evaluate the research study described in the article below. Can you identify any weaknesses in the study?
•
E-mail losing face
By Alan Jones, Press Association Industrial Correspondent
Workers are becoming tired of receiving and writing so many emails and are increasingly favouring face to face
communication, according to a new report today.
A survey of 1,200 office staff by recruitment firm Office Angels found that almost one in 10 believed their working
relationships had suffered because of a lack of direct “face contact” with clients or colleagues.
One in four admitted they spent too long reading or writing emails and 15% said emails distracted them from
concentrating on other work.
Office Angels suggested having a “facemail” day, when workers tried to interact with customers or colleagues face to
face.
David Clubb, managing director of Office Angels said:
A facemail day is great excuse for employees to set up meetings with some of those clients they may not have caught up with
for a while or for them to demonstrate their excellent customer service skills. Email undoubtedly has benefits, but can
often be over relied upon. Office Angels is going back to basics and communicating the old fashioned way and we'd
encourage your office to do the same.
•
©The Press Association, 2008. Reproduced with permission.
Activity 2
•
•
You want to find out how effective befriending schemes are for young carers and whether this
improves outcomes for the people they’re caring for.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a journal (source of explicit source) or
talking to a colleague (source of implicit source) to help with your information need?
Advantages
Journal
Colleague
Disadvantages
Further reading
•
Evaluating Web Pages:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/
Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
•
Critical Evaluation of Resources:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guid
es/evaluation.html
•
Tacit, Implicit and Explicit Knowledge:
http://www.knowledgeharvesting.org/mod
ules/Understand%20the%20nature%20of%20t
acit,%20implicit%20and%20explicit%20know
%E2%80%A6.pdf
•
Evaluating Print Vs. Internet Sources:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resour
ce/553/04/
•
Finding information in health and lifestyle:
evaluating health and lifestyle information
on the internet:
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resourc
e/view.php?id=189684
•
Internet Social Worker: Judge:
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/s
ocial-worker/?sid=2570076&itemid=12066
•
Evaluating Sources of Information:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/r
esearch/r_evalsource.html
References
• Jones, A. (2008, December 1st). Email losing face.
The Herald. The Press Association.
• Kerr, D., Wilkinson, H., and Cunningham, C.
(2008). Supporting older people in care homes at
night. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
• The Open University. Evaluating information.
Retrieved October 10th, 2008, from
http://www.open.ac.uk/safari/php_pages/s05t01
p010000.php.
Copyright & Credits
(c) 2009 Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services except
where indicated otherwise.
This work is based on and derived from Better informed for better health and
better care. NHS Education Scotland, 2009
(http://www.infoliteracy.scot.nhs.uk/information-literacy-framework.aspx).
CC-BY-NC. Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 UK : Scotland License. To
view a copy of this licence, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/scotland/.
This means that, unless indicated otherwise, you may freely copy and adapt
this work provided you acknowledge IRISS as the source. Specifically:
* The Information Literacy Cycle diagram may be copied but may not be
modified without permission from NHS Education Scotland [contact: Eilean.Craig@nes.scot.nhs.uk]
* The article reproduced with the permission of the Press Association may
not be included in any derivative work.