Research Unbound: A Library Orientation for Transfer, Upper-Division, and Graduate Students

Evaluating Currency

Once you've evaluated an item's authority, your next step is to consider its currency, or its timeliness. While you may have instructors who ask you to find information published within the last five years, there isn't a single standard to judge whether an item is current enough across all disciplines. Instead, there are several criteria to consider when you're looking for information (in addition to any requirements set forth by your instructor):

• For your topic, how important is it to have the most up-to-date information? For instance, if you're researching the American Civil War, you might find recent scholarly articles useful, but work published in the 1860s and 1870s would also be valuable. The nature of your topic - whether it's current, historical, or a mix of both - will help you determine the appropriate date range for the information you need.
• As you examine information, when was the information created? Looking at articles of almost any kind (scholarly, trade, popular, or newspaper), this is generally reflected in the publication date.
• If you use a website, when was it last updated? A website's last date of update tells you how current the information is, and is generally located at the bottom of a website or web page. Listing this information is a hallmark of good website design and management.

The University Libraries' OneSearch tool can help you focus in on specific date ranges, and many of our academic databases also let you look at materials only from certain timeframes. But, before you set these limits, consider what timeframes might be useful for your needs.