Read and Evaluate

Evaluation of materials

BOOKS:

* Relevance

Due to the time constraints, although many other books were consulted and read for this project, there were mainly two books that are more directly relevant and useful. They are both relevant to the subject, however, only certain chapters are directly related to the scope of the research. In general, both books provide comprehensive background information and related topics.

* Authoritative Source and Current

Both books are from authoritative sources with reputable organisations.

Canfora (1987) is older and have more focus on the historical backgrounds of the ancient city of Alexandria and the histories of wars and legends behind the library history. The book has a wider cover for other great libraries at the time, not only just the Royal Library of Alexandria. This book is a translated book. It provides an excellent chronological events of Alexandria's history.

Macleod's(2002) collections are more recent and all contributors were internationally-renowned experts in the areas of this topic. The contents and authors are all academic within the internationally universities communities. One of the chapter provides great summary of the history of Alexandrian Library.


JOURNAL ARTICLES:

While evaluating journal articles obtained from the databases mentioned previously, it was found that many articles were not directly relevant to the scope of this research project. Even though many do cover the subject of 'Alexandrian library', they were mainly focusing on the re-building of the library in the modern Egypt city of Alexandria and the politics surrounded by the re-building projects.

WEBSITES:

* Relevance

Majority of the materials collected for this research were obtained from the websites. Many items were presented upon the research through Googling, however, they all need process of sorting and checking for the relevance and authorities. At the end, only certain numbers of items were selected for its relevance. In general, these items are easier to access and more relevant to the scope of the research.

The information and contents in these items are clear and comprehensive after a considerable time and efforts in sorting and evaluating during the process of searching.

* Authoritative sources and current

The disadvantages of the web materials are the questioning around their authoritative sources. Most of the information available from the websites can be published by anyone without any official endorsement or checking. Therefore, the filtering and sorting process was very important to ensure that the selected materials do have authorised sources or copyright publishers. Most of the website materials selected were checked for their current status and accuracy.