A Checklist for evaluating a book's usefulness

The following is a checklist that you can refer to for determining the potential usefulness a book for meeting your information need.

	Dust jacket
	Any information about the author? Is he/she an expert on the subject? Any reviews of the book? Any indication of the audience that the book is intended for? Adults, children, academics, students?
	Title and subtitle
	Does it reflect what you are looking for? Titles can be misleading.
	Contents
	Any indication that the book contains the information you are interested in?
	Preface
	Does the preface indicate that the book will be useful for your topic/work?
	Authority
	What authority do(es) the writer(s) have on the subject? Are they subject specialists?
	Index
	Look up all the keywords that describe your topic. Look out for cross references and follow them.
	Date of the book
	Is the information current or outdated? Is historical information still valid for your topic, or must the information be recent/current? Even when the book is relatively new you have to bear in mind that it takes quite a long time for a book to be published. It can be anything from 1 to 5 years between completion of the text and the publishing date of the book.

Definition: Cross reference "reference within a text to another part of text" or "refer from one part of something, esp. a book, to another."           (Source: The Collins English Dictionary, 1986:373)