Q. What are some sources about the rise of misinformation or "fake news" and how it threatens critical thinking?

Our Discovery Catalog searches through a lot of our databases all at once and is found on our library homepage. It can be a good place to start to cast a wide net to see what is available. It will even find items the library doesn't own, but can possibly get via interlibrary loan (ILL) – though you can limit those results out after doing a search to items just held by the TCC Library. ILL is a free service for TCC students and employees. Here is an FAQ that teaches you how to use the catalog.

Example searches on this topic from the catalog (that you can edit or change in a new search, note the keywords used in the search bar):

• misinformation "critical thinking" – all source types
• misinformation "critical thinking" – peer reviewed articles
• news media "critical thinking" – ebooks

After doing a search in Discovery, you can limit to the source type you are needing (articles, books, video, etc.) and even to specific dates. If searching for a peer-reviewed article, you can even limit to that!

A note on Ebooks: Often times, there is a "search within" feature or a search bar to search for key terms within the ebook. You'll be shown a list of pages/results where that word appears in the book. So, you can quickly scan a book without having to read the whole thing (that links shows you how). 

For a list of all of our databases, see the "Articles & Databases" link off the library website. 

For tips on how to search in our databases and catalog using things like Boolean operators, we recommend this FAQ. Keep in mind, you may not find one perfect source for your topic, but this FAQ can help you understand what to do in that situation. 

If searching on the web, here’s some FAQ that can be helpful to limit to a credible source or help you refine your search:

• Q. How can I get to Google Advanced Search?
• Q. How do I find .GOV or .EDU or .ORG websites?
  • .edu results example for this topic
• Q. How can I find an article over a specific topic from a magazine (or other periodical) my instructor has recommended, published within a specific timeframe?
  • Results for your topic from Psychology Today (a magazine)
• Q. Can I access The New York Times online?
  • New York times results for this topic

Also good to know: anything you find in Google Scholar, you can find in the catalog if you run into paywalls (we have more options for access even if we don't own it, like interlibrary loan). 

If you find an article online outside of the library but want to know if it comes from a peer reviewed journal, you can check if a journal is peer reviewed here.