Evaluating a Web Site

 

Whenever you seek information from the internet, you need to determine whether or not the information is accurate. There are several things to look for which can help you make a decision about the accuracy of the web site's information. The following site has a lot of good information to help you figure out how to evaluate a web site, including an information literacy quiz:

Information Literacy Resources


You will be assigned to work with a group, and given a set of web sites below to evaluate. Look at each of the web sites in your set by clicking on them.
For EACH web site in the group assigned to you, use the criteria listed below to determine accuracy.
Fill out this Internet Evaluation form for EACH site in your group, and be prepared to tell the class the positives and negatives about each site.

 

AIDS:

  1. Rethinking AIDS
  2. Living with HIV/AIDS
  3. True but Little Known Facts about Women and Aids

Holocaust:

  1. A Short Introduction...
  2. The Holocaust
  3. Are the Jews Central to the Holocaust?

Sponges:

  1. Origin of the Inverts
  2. Introduction to Porifera
  3. Phylum Porifera

Periodic Table:

  1. The Periodic Table of the Elements by The Chemistry Consortium
  2. The Pictorial Periodic Table
  3. Periodic Table: the song

Martin Luther King, Jr.:

  1. A True Historical Examination
  2. Research and Education Institute
  3. About MLK

Smoking and Tobacco:

  1. Health Hazards of Tobacco: Some Facts
  2. The Ten Biggest Lies about Smoke & Smoking
  3. Fact Sheet

Presidential Biography:

  1. The White House
  2. George W. Bush
  3. The American Presidency

Child Labor:

  1. Child Labor in Factories
  2. Little Miners
  3. Child Labor

DHMO:

  1. Facts about DHMO
  2. Dihydrogen Monoxide
  3. Ban DHMO

Explorers:

  1. Juan Ponce de Leon
  2. All About Explorers
  3. More on Ponce de Leon


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Glossary and Criteria for Evaluating Web Sites:


Authority--this is the person, organization, or company responsible for the CONTENT of the page; the person or people who actually wrote the information. Do not confuse this with the webmaster, who is the person responsible for the design of the page. Try to answer the following questions about the author:

Who is the author or the person responsible for the page?
Is the author an expert in this field? What evidence can you find for this?
Is there a way to contact the author?
Is the author affiliated with an organization and is there a link to that organization's page?
Does the domain name or URL reveal any useful information about this site?
Is the information copyrighted?

Purpose:
What is the purpose of the page?
To teach? To sell? To persuade? To entertain? To complete a class assignment?

Accuracy:
Where does the information come from? Is there bibliographic or works cited information?
Does the language or tone seem biased?
Are there grammatical, spelling, or typographical errors that could indicate inaccuracies in information?
Does the information conflict with things that you have learned in school?

Currency:
When was the site last updated?
Are there a lot of dead links?

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Sources:

Checklist for an Informational Web Page Copyright Jan Alexander & Marsha Ann Tate 1996-1998, Wolfgram Memorial Library, Widener University, Chester, PA.
http://www.widener.edu/Tools_Resources/Libraries/Wolfgram_Memorial_Library/Evaluate_Web_Pages/659/

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources by Susan E. Beck, Head, Humanities & Social Sciences Services Department, New Mexico State University Library
http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html

Evaluating Internet Resources: Annette Lamb, The Teacher Tap
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic32.htm

Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask: U.C. Berkeley Library
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

The A B C Ds of Evaluating Internet Resources: Binghamton University Libraries
http://library.lib.binghamton.edu/search/evaluation.html

Generic Top-Level Domains: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
Bogus Web Sites: http://andoverhs.anoka.k12.mn.us/imc/bogus.html