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Tips on evaluating web resources

Why Should You Evaluate Web Pages?

  • Anyone with Internet access can put up a Web page.

  • There is no censorship on the Internet. 

  • There is no one to check accuracy or authority of the author. 

  • There is no editorial board to approve articles on the Internet. 

  • There is a lot of "commercial" publishing and sponsoring of Web pages. 

  • Someone can put up a page and never update it or remove it. 

Strategies to Avoid Bad Information ­

In addition to the information below here is a Web Evaluation Criteria Checklist. It is also available as a rich text format file that you can print out to help you evaluate sites criteria checklist

Know Your Subject Matter
For example, take a look at this page about Dihydrogen Monoxide. It looks pretty "official". However, do you know what Dihydrogen Monoxide is? This is one example to illustrate why you have to know what you are dealing with. Before you decide if a website is factual do a little fact checking on your own.  Go to one of the Internet Virtual Libraries such as DeskRef to look up your topic in an encyclopedia or dictionary. Always get a second opinion.

Identify the Type of Page You Have Found
It is useful to identify the type of page that you have found because you would apply different criteria to each type of page. For example, a commercial page may contain very good information, but knowing that the goal of the page is to sell you a product should make you aware that the information provided may have a bias.

Types of webpage include: Commercial, personal, academic, advocacy, association or professional.

Identify the Origin of the Page
URL's are often a good indication of the origin of the page. Check the URL to see if the domain name includes a .com (commercial), a .gov (governmental), an .org (non-profit organization ), a .net (network), an .edu (educational), or a two letter code (country of origin).  Sometimes the ~ means that it is a personal homepage

Identify the author/sponsor of the page.

It is often difficult to identify the author of a website, but it is important as it tells you about the quality of the information you will find on the site. What is the person's or association's authority to post on this subject? Is there a contact address or number (are they willing to answer questions, take feedback or are they hiding?) If the author is a person, can you find a little bit about their background on the website or elsewhere?

Identify the Currency of the Website

Is there a date given on the website. Does this indicate when the site was first placed online (could indicate the information is dated) or when it was last updated (indicates the information is maintained). No dates or an old date could indicate that the site is abandoned and the information stale.

 

When you are conducting reseach use the Appropriate Search Tools and Resources

  • Make sure that the WEB is where you should be looking. Ask yourself;

    • Should you be using a specific part of the web?

      • Google Scholar for scholarly journals rather than Google.com?

      • The Heart and Lung Association’s website rather than Ask.com?

      • Yahoo news rather than Yahoo.com?

    • Would a printed resource work better?

    • Is time an issue? Would the material you are seeking be more quickly found on a journal’s website?

    • Would using the library’s e-resource collection give you more free access to quality materials, more quickly than Google?

    • Start your research with a subject guide such as the Internet Public Library Reference Centre, which provides rated guides to high-quality subject collections on the Internet.

Check to see if someone else has already "debunked" the information by consulting some of the sites below (Always be cynical and expect bias - check for a second source even with these sites)