FIT
100
Assignment
2: Evaluating Web Sites
(or, Now that you’ve found it, how good is it?)
Autumn
2001
"You may have heard that
'knowledge is power,' or that information, the raw material of knowledge, is
power. But the truth is that only some information is power: reliable
information"
~Robert Harris~
1) Kapoun, Jim. "Teaching undergrads WEB evaluation: A guide for library instruction." C&RL News (July/August 1998): 522-523. http://www.ala.org/acrl/undwebev.html
2) Evaluating Internet
Resources: A checklist
http://www.infopeople.org/bkmk/select.html
Many of you have done a fair
amount of browsing and searching on the Internet. Have you ever stopped to question the content
of sites you encounter when you are looking for cold, hard facts?
Anyone can publish on the
Internet and most of that content is not verified for accuracy, unlike many
print journals and other publications.
The job of fact verification is left up to you, the user. Expert searching of the Internet for
information is a valuable skill, but knowing how to evaluate what you find is
something of an art.
·
In a search engine, use basic search strategies to
bring back sites with information on a topic.
·
Use evaluation techniques to determine authenticity
and credibility of web sites.
Web search tips from Search
Engine Watch:
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/index.html
See Assignment 1 for a list
of available search engines and links to them.
List of Search Engines by
function:
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/links/
When looking at information
provided on the Internet, keep in mind the following criteria:
o
Is the information reliable? Free from errors?
o
Are the sources of information listed? Can you verify them?
o
Is the author an expert in the field?
o
Is publisher of the site reputable? What does the domain of the document tell
you? (Is it an educational institution, .edu, or a government site, .gov, etc.)
o
Can you tell the difference between an educational
site, and a site that is simple hosted by an education domain?
o
Do you find any biases on the site?
o
What is the motivation for the site? To inform? To persuade?
o
Is the intended audience of the site indicated?
o
How updated in the content? Is the date of last update easily found?
o
Does the site contain original information, or just
a bunch of links?
o
What topics are covered
o
Is the topic covered in depth?
o
Is the site consistently available?
o
How many links are dead ends?
Does it cost money to use the site?
o
Do you have to register to use the site?
What happens when you encounter an “official” looking site? At first glance it appears authoritative and reliable. Deciding whether the information presented is accurate and objective, current and authoritative is a skill to be developed.
Web site evaluation is a contextual process. How you evaluate a site is usually dependent on your research task or information need. Are you looking for new ideas and opinions, facts on a subject, or evidence that supports your position on a topic? Answers to every question in the criteria listed above will not be found for every site. The art of web site evaluation is to obtain answers to enough of your questions that IN YOUR JUDGEMENT the site has substance, merit, reliability, authenticity, etc. for your purposes-or it doesn’t. In many cases it is your own knowledge or familiarity with some of the facts that may tip you off to inconsistencies in the web site content.
1. Take a look at
the following groups of sites. Using the
criteria listed above, rank their reliability on a scale of one to ten (ten
being most reliable).
Would you use these sites as
objective sources of information on the topics?
How much do you trust the
information from each site? Do you find
each one to be credible in one way or another?
Is there a particular viewpoint the content is deriving from that should
be considered as you view the site?
Group 1:
Group 2:
Group 3:
·
http://oncolink.upenn.edu/cancer_news/1994/smoke_media.html
·
http://www.smokingsection.com/issues1.html#smoke
Group 4:
·
http://www.ushmm.org/kristallnacht/frame.htm
·
http://ihr.org/jhr/v15/v15n2p10_Okeefe.html
Use this table to note the
web page’s reliability/credibility/objectivity, etc. Mark each column with a number between 1 and
10. 1= Little
or no accuracy, authority, etc. and 10 = very accurate, authoritative, etc.
Site Name/URL
Accuracy Authority Objectivity Currency
Coverage/Scope Accessibility
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2. Use the skills
gained in Assignment 1 to do a search on a topic of interest (in other words, a
topic in which you have some previous knowledge). Evaluate the sites found on the topic and
reflect on how you evaluate them and what criteria influence your decision
about the validity of the site. Go
through the questions listed above in number 1 and add your own questions as
you form a judgment. Mark the
reliability of the site for the various criteria below.
Site Name/URL Accuracy Authority Objectivity Currency Coverage/Scope Accessibility
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3. As you
evaluate the sites you find, keep this question in mind: At first glance, what aspects of a website
make it appear “authoritative”?
Keep in mind the criteria
you have read in the paragraphs above.
Did all the sites answer all of the questions? Did they answer enough to appear
authoritative even though you, as a knowledgeable searcher, knew different?
Project 1 will require you
to create a site that provides “misinformation” for the novice user. Will your site pass all of the above
criteria?
Examples of sites that could be seen as
spoofs, or as misinformation:
Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie
Real Aroma
Feline Reactions
to Bearded Men
http://www.improb.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html
Turn in your criteria tables,
or a copy of them, to your TA at the beginning of Lab 7. Those are the labs that run on Monday/Tuesday
October 23/24. Make sure your name,
section and student number is on top.