FIT 100
LAB 5: Evaluating Web Sites
(or, Now that you’ve found
it, how good is it?)
Spring 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~
Reading to be done prior
to Lab 5:
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
Introduction:
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.
Objectives:
·
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.
Online Resources:
Web search tips from Search Engine Watch:
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/index.html
See Lab 4 for a list of available search
engines and links to them.
List of Search Engines by function:
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/links/
Evaluation Criteria:
When looking at information provided on the
Internet, keep in mind the following criteria:
·
Accuracy
o
Is
the information reliable? Free from
errors?
o
Are
the sources of information listed? Can
you verify them?
·
Authority
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?
·
Objectivity/Reasonableness
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?
·
Currency
o
How
updated in the content? Is the date of
last update easily found?
·
Coverage/Scope
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?
·
Accessibility
o
Is
the site consistently available?
o
How
many links are dead ends?
o
Does
it cost money to use the site?
o
Do
you have to register to use the site?
To Do:
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?
Group 1:
·
http://www.ushmm.org/kristallnacht/frame.htm
·
http://ihr.org/jhr/v15/v15n2p10_Okeefe.html
Group 2:
Group 3:
·
http://oncolink.upenn.edu/cancer_news/1994/smoke_media.html
·
http://www.smokingsection.com/issues1.html#smoke
Use this table to note its reliability. Mark each column with a number between 1 and
10. 1= Little or no accuracy,
authority, etc. and 10 = very accurate, authoritative, etc.
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Site Name |
Accuracy |
Authority |
Objectivity |
Currency |
Coverage/ Scope |
Accessibility |
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2.
Use
the skills gained in Lab 4 to do a search on a topic of interest with a lab
partner. Evaluate the sites found on
the topic and discuss how you evaluate them and why. Go through the questions above and add your own as you form a
judgment. Mark the reliability of the
site for the various criteria below.
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Site Name |
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 many 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 http://zapatopi.net/afdb.html
Real Aroma http://realaroma.com/
Feline Reactions to Bearded
Men
http://www.improb.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html
Mankato, Minnesota Homepage http://lme.mnsu.edu/mankato/mankato.html
Turn in your criteria tables, or a copy of them, to
your TA before leaving. Make sure your name and student number are on it.