The proper use of information made available by media and various information providers depends on people’s abilities to understand their information needs, and to locate, retrieve and evaluate the quality of the information they can access. Today, there is an extremely wide and diverse selection of information material, content, and resources available, particularly on the Internet, varying greatly in accuracy, reliability, and value.
In addition, this information exists in a variety of forms (e.g. as text, image or statistic, electronically or in print), that can be made available through online repositories and portals, virtual and real libraries and documentary collections, databases, archives, museums, etc. The most important factor, however, is that the quality of this information can range from ‘very good’ to ‘very bad’.
Before evaluating information sources, it is important to think about what the information is for. This will help you to identify credible information sources. The key questions might be: What source or what kind of source would be the most credible for providing information in this particular case? Which sources are likely to be fair, objective, lacking hidden motives, showing quality control?
We can think of information as being held by media and other information providers, such as libraries, museums, archives and the Internet. These information providers have a number of roles, including to:
- inform;
- educate;
- facilitate teaching and learning processes;
- provide access to all types of information (often free of charge, plural, reliable and without restrictions);
- serve as a gateway to information;
- promote universal values and civil rights, such as freedom of expression and information serve as society’s collective memory;
- gather information;
- preserve cultural heritage;
- entertain.