Key Takeaways

Certain entities are more likely to create information for the purpose of informing their audience. These include government agencies, international and national organizations, and educational institutions.
Limit searches to government organizations or educational institutions by using the search command site:.gov or site:.edu respectively.
GuideStar is a tool that can help you evaluate non-profit organizations. Evaluate other organizations by searching for them using the library search engine, OneSearch.

Who is creating the information and why?

Different entities create information for different reasons. Identify interested parties, such as scholars, organizations, governments, and industries, who might produce information about a topic and then determine how to access that information.

Government Entities

Government agencies provide a lot of useful information online for free. You can search your subject terms followed by the site:.gov limiter to gain access to a related government organization.

Example Search:

human trafficking statistics site:.gov

But not all content will be available to you through a Google search. A lot of content will only be accessible through a search within the website. There are many government websites that provide access to data and statistics. Access some of them through the link below.

Federal Government Data and Statistics

Universities and Online Repositories

Repositories are free online collections of scholarly material. Universities usually have repositories that contain student theses and dissertations, but also include faculty research. Repositories from other types of institutions might include grey literature and other useful materials. You can search individual repositories (e.g. here is CSUN’s online repository, ScholarWorks), or you can use any of the following search engines to search multiple repositories:

BASE

CORE

OAIster

International and National Organizations

Some organizations such as the various agencies governed by the UN (e.g. World Health Organization) will be well known. Other organizations might partner up with educational institutions. Although you must evaluate every single information source, the organizations affiliation with a well-known entity will help gain them credibility.

If you are not sure if an organization is credible or not, use GuideStar to evaluate different agencies. If you cannot access content through their website, access GuideStar through the library database NexisUni to see if they have a company profile. GuideStar only provides information about non-profit agencies. If the organization you are researching does not have a company report, try searching for them in OneSearch, the library’s search engine on the library homepage, to see if they are mentioned by another reputable source or if there is a review on them.

To seach for a nonprofit organization using OneSearch

Enter the search term GuideStar in Onesearch, the big search box on the library homepage.
Select the Journal Entry "GuideStar directory of American charities...index".

Search result for GuideStar Journal

Access online content through Nexis Uni. You may be prompted for your Portal login.

Online access for GuideStar Journal

Search GuideStar for charity name.

Nexis Uni database seaching within GuideStar