URBN1100 Investigating the City: Hands-on Research Methods for Urban Analysis

Welcome to the resource guide for Professor Nicole Pangborn's class, Investigating the City: Hands-on Research Methods for Urban Analysis. Here you will find resources that can help you with your research in these areas. Please feel free to contact me for a one-on-one appointment to discuss your research. My appointment calendar can be found in the Your Librarian box on this page.

If you're new to writing college level research papers, you might like to take a look at our guide below.

Eddy Street, Providence, RI. Postcard, 1907. Public domain. Luna Insight.

It can be hard sometimes to know whether a source is trustworthy or not. One quick method is the following. It's not foolproof but it does give you some things to think about when evaluating a source.:

Try asking yourself the following questions:

1. Currency: How up to date is the information in this site?
2. Relevance: How relevant is the information for your needs? Is it an appropriate level (not too elementary or too advanced)?
3. Authority: Who is responsible for the information in this source? What are their credentials?
4. Accuracy: Does the source provide evidence to support the information? Can it be found elsewhere?
5. Purpose: What is the purpose? Is it to teach, sell, persuade?

Of course, Karen can also help you determine the validity of any resource you might be unsure about.

The above test was developed by librarian Sarah Blakeslee and her team at California State University, Chico.