Find It Fast

March 1, 2016

In the newest edition of his latest book, Berkman (media & information studies, The New School; Digital Dilemmas) highlights how to find the most relevant information from nontraditional resources. He starts by devoting an entire chapter to traditional resources such as searchable databases, reference materials, and even librarians, before moving into how researchers locate information in new ways. Berkman refers to this as social searching; using individuals or groups of people to retrieve news and other facts. Considering blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and additional social media, the author provides tips for assessing the credibility of a statement and encourages readers to track down experts in their areas of interest. Berkman even includes sections on how to get in contact with these specialists, ways to approach them, and what questions to use in interviews. He talks about library resources but from a non-library perspective, which is refreshing. VERDICT Berkman does an excellent job of providing an overview of the various kinds of resources available to readers without overemphasizing the library. This practical and hands-on guide would be helpful for researchers in fields such as the social sciences and humanities. For academic libraries.--Jill Morningstar, Michigan State Univ. Libs., East Lansing

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