Evaluating Web Sites

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Evaluating Web Sites

• Or
• Is this a good place to find information?
• Joyce Laszczak Roberta Sibley

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Developing essential information literacy skills

• What am I looking for? Find it.
• Is this good information? Evaluate it.
• Analyze and extract relevant information
  summarize take notes.
• Synthesize put it all together.
• Use information ethically dont plagiarize.

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Criteria for Evaluation

• Authority
• Accuracy
• Objectivity
• Currency
• Coverage

• Who
• What
• Why
• When
• Where

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Search Engine Database

• Online or subscription databases

• Search engines

• Cost to subscribe not free
• Contains articles, books and other content that
  is reviewed before publishing
• Information is categorized and organized
• Information is stable does not disappear

• Free
• No review of content anyone can publish
• Information is not organized
• Information is not stable content disappears
• Searches websites

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Directoriesthe web organized by topic into
categories

• MeL, About.com, Librarians Index to the
  Internet, Infomine are examples of directories
• Organized by category or subject
• Categorized by people, not machines
• A directory of websites

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Authority

• Is the author identified?
• Are the authors qualifications given, or an
  email/ postal address?
• Is the organizations purpose stated, and is a
  contact address given?

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Authority - What does the domain name suggest?

• Company - .com
• Organization - .org
• Government - .gov
• US higher education - .edu
• Network - .net
• Military - .mil
• K-12 school

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Who put up the website?

• About us," "Philosophy," "Background," "Biography
• Who links to the page
• Google the author to find out more
• Look for a personal name (e.g., jbarker or
  barker) following a tilde ( ), a percent sign (
  ), or or the words "users," "members," or
  "people."

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Who put up the website?

• Why was the page put on the web? Inform, sell,
  entice, give facts, give data, explain, persuade,
  share, disclose?
• Might it be ironic? Satire or parody? Think about
  the "tone" of the page.
• Humorous? Parody? Exaggerated? Overblown
  arguments?
• Arguing a viewpoint with examples that suggest
  that what is argued is ultimately not possible.
• from UC Berkeley Library Finding information
  on the Internet

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Who put up the website?

• It is easy to be fooled, and this can make you
  look foolish in turn. Is this as credible and
  useful as the resources (books, journal articles,
  etc.) available in print or online through the
  library? Are you being completely fair? Too
  harsh? Totally objective? Requiring the same
  degree of "proof" you would from a print
  publication?
• Is the site good for some things and not for
  others?
• Are your hopes biasing your interpretation?
• from UC Berkeley Library Finding information on
  the Internet

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Accuracy

• Grammatical spelling or typing errors?
• Sources listed?
• Charts and graphs clearly labeled?
• Does material present information that confirms
  or contradicts facts from other sources?

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Talini
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Bias

• tendency to support or oppose a particular person
  or thing in an unfair way by allowing personal
  opinions to influence your judgment
• The government has accused the media of bias.
• There has always been a slight bias in favor of
  employing arts graduates in the company.
• Reporters must be impartial and not show
  political bias.

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Objectivity

• Purpose clearly stated?
• Is there a particular bias in viewpoint?
• Does the author distinguish fact from opinion?
• If there is advertising, is it clearly
  differentiated from informational content?

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Currency

• When was it written?
• Last updated?
• If material is presented in charts and graphs, is
  it clearly stated when the data were gathered?

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Coverage

• Does the page seem to be completed?
• Is there depth-of-content?
• Are there links from the site supportive of the
  content?

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Grammar of the Internet
from November Learning www..november
learnining.com
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Who links to the site?
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Do I trust Wikipedia?
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Web Evaluation

• United States Environmental Assessment Center-
  DHMO
• All About Explorers
• WTO or
• WTO ?