Evaluating and Using
Print and Media Resources

Now that you've viewed a demo on how to determine the content richness of non-fiction resources, practice evaluating offline resources found in your community, school or home library.

Follow these steps for this practice session. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed to open some of the resources listed below:

1. Begin by selecting a common topic that you want to research.
2. Gather 5-10 books that address this topic. You might include some fiction as well as non-fiction resources for this exercise. For an example of a list of resources one class used when they evaluated the resources for a research project on Abraham Lincoln, read this PDF file (you will need Adobe Acrobat to open this file):
   Selecting Sources for Abraham Lincoln
3. Download, xerox and handout the following evaluations you are to use to assess the richness of each book's content. If you are doing this in a class setting with several other students, you can assign one or two books for each small group of 3-5 students to evaluate. Select one of two forms for this activity (you will need Adobe Acrobat to open these files):
   1. Non-fiction Book Review Evaluation Form 1
   2. Non-fiction Book Review Evaluation Form 2
4. Have each group tell why which resource is or is not rich in content.

Now go to Practice Evaluating Online Resources: Activity 1....