Research and Library Essentials

Who is an 'expert'? How do I know who the experts are within a specific community? While we'll deal with the specifics of evaluating individual sources in a later module, I do want to address the broader concept of authority in a little more detail. Ask yourself these questions to start:

• What communities am I a part of? (any kinds of communities; group based around common interests or beliefs - for example, a church community, a gaming community, a political organization)
• How is someone judged as authoritative within these communities?

Here's the idea within scholarly communities a nutshell:

What authors or scholars are considered authoritative (or experts) in their discipline is highly dependent on two related states:

1. Context: how are you going to use the information or ideas of this person? For example, who is an 'expert' on the behavior of teenagers on social media depends on your perspective. On one hand, a scholar who studies it might be considered an expert, but teens themselves, who engage in that activity directly, might also be considered expert. So again, the context is important.
2. Authority is also a social construct: Who is considered an authority is highly based on who has power within a society. Power is often based on historically unbalanced power dynamics between various majority and minority populations. For example, think about how folks in the U.S.before the 1960's viewed the European colonization of North America. Most textbooks, as well as popular media, viewed it through the lens of white, land-owning, men. The perspectives and voices of Native Americans, women, and other minority populations were rarely considered. The same types of power dynamics, while they change over time, still apply to many aspects of our lives. Who (and what theories) are considered 'authoritative' within any discipline or community of scholars are also sometimes swayed by these dynamics.

The question you may asking yourselves right now is "how does this help me determine who I should consult and use in my research writing?'

The answer lies in many of the habits of mind we've covered already in the course. Continually asking questions. Here is a handy chart that sums it up pretty well: