Information Literacy

Evaluate

An information literate person assesses the value and reliability of retrieved information.

Have you found ‘good’ information? Look closely at the information your search has recovered to check whether your question has been answered. Do you believe the information?

Assess the value and reliability of recovered information.

Information literacy cycle

Getting help with evaluating

JBI COnNECT
(Clinical Online Network of Evidence for Care and Therapeutics)
This is an online facility which provides service providers, health professionals and consumers with the skills and resources to enhance care by connecting the best available international evidence to the point-of-care.

How do I appraise the evidence?
There is so much information generated about healthcare practice that it can be difficult to identify what is useful to you. Critical appraisal helps determine whether the evidence is valid and reliable. The NHS Scotland Clinical Governance website includes a section on using evidence.

A Guideline Developers Handbook
Known as SIGN 50, this provides guidance on guideline development

How to Evaluate the Information Sources You Find
Cornell University website providing links to evaluation methods for a variety of materials.

Evaluating Internet Health Information: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine
This tutorial teaches you how to evaluate the health information that you find on the Web. It is about 16 minutes long.

How to find the most trustworthy health information on the Internet
By the Canadian Health Network
The Internet offers a richness of health information, but wading through hit after hit to find trustworthy, high quality and health promoting information can be difficult. How do you know what's good information and what's less reliable? A guide to evaluating internet resources.