Generalist librarians offer particularly helpful guidance with online source identification and access.
Start by asking:
What’s my topic or issue?
What do I want to learn (facts, opinions, solutions)?
Who is involved (people, places, systems)?
This helps you search with purpose.
Use Google or your school/library databases. Try searching:
“Your topic + city name” (e.g., “youth homelessness Chicago”)
“Your topic + site:gov” for government sources (e.g., “mental health resources site:chicago.gov”)
“Your topic + site:.org” for nonprofits and research centers
Use quotation marks around phrases (e.g., “gun violence prevention”) to keep terms together.
Great places to find community-level information:
Block Club Chicago - neighborhood-level reporting
WBEZ - civic and government coverage
Your local library or neighborhood association website
City of Chicago department pages (e.g., Youth Services, Public Health)
Try to include a mix of:
News articles – what’s happening right now
Government or nonprofit sites – official data, programs
Interviews or community voices – lived experience
Academic research (if available) – big-picture understanding
Evaluating sources in both your academic and personal lives is very practical skill. With practice, you can learn to critically evaluate every source and website you come across quickly and efficiently. There are many different methods that can be used to help evaluate information, and some will apply better than others, depending on the information.
Read closely. Question sources that contain:
