Evaluating the Weirdness of the WWW

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Evaluating the Weirdnessof the WWW

• Stephanie Davis-Kahl, Ames Library, Fall 2008

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Why Evaluate?

• Amateur vs Expert
• Lack of Standards
• No Fact-Checking

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Good Stuff

• Flickr
• Facebook, MySpace
• Blogs
• Del.icio.us
• Encyclopedia of Life, Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Wikipediaor is it?

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Bad Stuff

• Scams Fraud
• Hurricane Katrina, Virginia Tech, 419
• Spamdexing
• Hoaxes

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Caveat Searcher

• Evaluation Criteria
• CONTEXT
• AUTHORITY
• OBJECTIVITY
• CURRENCY
• ACCURACY

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Context

• Context what are you looking for?
• Questions to ask
• Do I need peer-reviewed information, or examples
  of points of view?
• Does the site
• answer my question?
• give me enough information?
• give me direction of where to go next?

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Currency

• Questions to Ask
• When was the site created?
• When was the site last updated?
• Is the information itself up-to-date?
• How to Answer these Questions
• Look for any date information on the homepage as
  well as subsequent pages
• Check to see when the information was gathered or
  compiled

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Accuracy

• Questions to Ask
• Is it too good to be true?
• Is that statement/statistic correct, or is it a
  misinterpretation?
• Is there an editor for the site than checks
  information?
• How to Answer these Questions
• Look up the statement/statistic check the
  source, use reference materials like
  encyclopedias or almanacs to double-check
• Use sites like STATS.org

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Authority

• Questions to Ask
• Who wrote it?
• Who published it?
• How to Answer these Questions
• Look for biographical information, i.e. About
  Me, or do a search on the web using the persons
  name.
• If theres no personal name listed, is there an
  organization sponsoring or publishing the site?

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Objectivity

• Objectivity Lack of Bias
• Questions to Ask
• What kind of site is this? (i.e., personal,
  informational, news, educational, commercial,
  advocacy or a combination of these)
• Does the site have a mission statement or a
  history of the site?
• Is there advertising on the site?
• Does the content match the mission?

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Search Engine Mythology

• When I search the Web with a search engine, Im
  searching the entire Web.
• All search engines search the same set of Web
  pages.
• All search engines work the same.
• Search engines search the actual page at the time
  of searching.
• (adapted from Web of Deception, 2002)

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Change your search habits

• Use the library databases and subject guides!
• Librarians at Ames have created subject guides
  expressly for you to use in your research efforts
• We subscribe to many databases encompassing a
  huge range of subjects these are part of the
  Invisible Web!
• Turn to the Invisible Web
• http//www.invisible-web.net/
• the Invisible Web consists of material that
  general purpose search engines either cannot or,
  perhaps more importantly, will not include in
  their collections of Web pages.
• From The Invisible Web, Chris Sherman and Gary
  Price, 2002, p. xxii.
• UC-Berkeley has a great site about the Invisible
  Web
• http//www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Int
  ernet/InvisibleWeb.html
• Use Evaluative Directories
• Librarians Index to the Internet
• http//lii.org
• Criteria online at http//lii.org/search/file/pubc
  riteria
• INFOMINE
• http//infomine.ucr.edu
• Criteria online at http//infomine.ucr.edu/?viewh
  elp/infomine/btn_eval.html

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Dispelling Rumors Dismissing Innuendo

• Museum of Hoaxes
• http//www.museumofhoaxes.com
• STATS.org
• http//www.stats.org
• CDC Rumors Hoaxes
• http//www.cdc.gov/hoax_rumors.htm
• HOAXBUSTERS
• http//hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
• Urban Legends Reference Page
• http//www.snopes.com/
• Scambusters
• http//www.scambusters.org/
• Urban Legends Research Center
• http//www.ulrc.com.au/

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Test Yourself

• Credible or Not?
• Mayan Civilizations
• Boilerplate the Victorian Robot
• Driver License Search
• AIDS Facts
• HIV Information