An authoritative source is a work known to be reliable because its authority or authenticity is widely recognized by experts in the field.
Reitz, Joan. Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science: Accessed 7/17/2019
The Library specializes in collecting these types of resources so that students and faculty have the tools they need to research effectively. Rest assured that resources accessed through the Library’s website are always authoritative and appropriate for academic work.
Using Google (and other search engines on the Web) for research is risky. Free internet resources are sometimes authoritative (especially if they are offered by government agencies or academic institutions), but usually are not. Wikipedia, for example, is not authoritative because there is no way to verify authorship and anyone can edit an entry at any time.
