6.4: What is Relevance?

When you're doing research, it can sometimes be difficult to wade through the mountains of useless information. The internet is filled with information. Even in a library's carefully curated collection, there are millions of sources that you could review. Despite most of these being useful to someone, somewhere, most of them aren't going to be relevant to your current information need!

Definition: Relevance

The degree to which your information source is closely connect or appropriate for your information need.

It probably sounds obvious but when you're doing research you want to find sources that provide information directly related to your topic! This is a big part of why we've spent so much time learning how to form research questions and choose good search keywords, to help weed out the unrelated (or irrelevant) sources. However, it does get a little more complex than that. Sources can be relevant without being as relevant as needed. For example, you can find one source that discusses your topic without adding any new or useful information.

If you're researching video marketing on social media and your source discusses social media marketing but not using videos specifically, then while that source is possibly relevant it isn't nearly as relevant as one specifically discussing online video marketing.

To help you identify the source's relevance consider the:

• Title: The first glance at the source's intended content.
• Depth of the information provided: Does it provide useful, new information?
• Is the timeliness appropriate?

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