CIS 150

Based on document by Jan Sauer (USA Librarian)

www.southalabama.edu/univlib/sauer/evaluat.html

World Wide WebVariety of Information AvailableEasy to Post Material

Anyone can create and post to web sitesProgram to write HTML code (Word)ISP Provides limited space for users

Not Necessarily CorrectNot Necessarily of Good Enough Quality for

Research PaperScholarly JournalsBlind Review

Evaluating Internet ResourcesCritical Thinking

Finding InformationWeighing it’s QualityUsing it to Think for Yourself

Need a Healthy Skepticism What your Read – Books, Magazines,

Newspapers, Textbooks, JournalsWhat you Watch – TVEspecially Internet Postings

Search EnginesPurpose is to Make MoneyGoogle is an Advertising Firm

Business model is to convert search traffic into ad revenues

Search engine must work to attract the audience, but not the purpose

Criteria for Evaluating WebsitesAuthority of the Source

Bias or Accuracy and Objectivity

Currency, Coverage, and Continuity

Authority of the Source 1) What Domain is the webpage coming from?

.edu – Educational (is it an “official” web site or does it belong to faculty, staff, or student?)

.gov – Government - Political influence?.org – Non-profit organization – Bias,

Objectivity?.com – Commercial Vendor – Advertising?.net – Available to anyone

Authority of the Source2) How did you get to this site?

Trusted Person / Website Doctor Teacher Textbook

Search EngineUnsolicited E-mail

The more you trust the source, the less you have to worry about the quality

Authority of the Source3) Do you recognize the:

AuthorInstitutionEntity where the Server Resides

Is there a re-direct link?

http://www.nytimes.com:80arts.COUN@209.25.154.239/

country_music_study.html 

Authority of the Source4) Can you find out more about the Author on

the Site? “About Us”, “Who We Are” If not, Why Not?

Is there some implied bias? Does someone take responsibility for the

content of the page? Are those responsible named and their

credentials given? If not, do not use it

http://activistcash.com/

Authority of the SourceDomain Registration Records

http://allwhois.com/http://CentralOps.net/co/ http://www.internic.net/whois.htmlhttp://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whoisBetterWhois.comedu domains: http://whois.educause.net/edudomain/whois.asp

Exercise: Who is really responsible for this website? IslamicConcern.com

Bias or Accuracy and Objectivity1) What is the Purpose of this information

Public Service Make Money News Education Advertising Sales Humor Etc.

Bias or Accuracy and Objectivity2) Is any sort of bias evident

Unbalanced language Claiming absolute truths without verifiable

data Acknowledgement of others opinions,

controversies or theories

http://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/sauer/propaganda.html

Bias or Accuracy and Objectivity3) Can you verify the information in another

reputable source? Journalists should have 2 sources, do you?

http://www.sniggle.net/bathtub.php

Bias or Accuracy and Objectivity4) Is the information blatant advertising?

Is it subtle advertising?

http://www.mercola.com

Bias or Accuracy and Objectivity5) Does the author display knowledge of

related sources? Believable bibliography / footnotes

6) Is quality evident through other factors: Design Presentation Spelling/Grammar Working Links Good web pages are not always accurate,

however, badly done web pages are especially suspect!

Bias or Accuracy and ObjectivityEvaluate this website for bias:

http://www.martinlutherking.org/

Currency and Coverage and Continuity1) Is the document manually or automatically

updated?2) Does the webpage state when it was last revised?

This may matter based on subject (history , medical, legal)

3) Is there indication of whether this is part of a large body of work

4) Is this page likely to disappear tomorrow? Print/download pages to prove sites

When was this site last updated:Plagiarism for Students

Documentation and PlagiarismDocument online sources according to the style

required by your instructor/disciplineTaking information off a website, even

paraphrasing a webpage, without citing the source is plagiarism.

Email, chat and texting info. must also be cited in your paper.

Will your instructor let you run your paper through Turnitin before final submission?

Using a free term paper or using one bought on the web is plagiarism.

Efficiency – Make Your Results BetterKnow what type of information you need

If you need “scholarly” information/journals don’t use search engines, go to library databases

Scholarly research for an upper division paper? Some scholarly associations or library databases or open access journals (DOAJ) or Google Scholar.

Primary documents for a history paper? Maybe from the Library of Congress

American Memory Project or a history interest group or a university online project. Books published before 1920. Sometimes these have been

scanned and put online. Google Books or our list of Electronic Books.

Efficiency – Make Your Results Better Know what type of information you need (continued)

Popular and current stories for a public speaking class? Popular magazines and newspapers online or in a

library databases online Variety of viewpoints?

Opposing Viewpoints database, CQ Researcher (scroll for these in the alphabetical list of databases on this page. The latest medical knowledge about drug interactions for your

parents health issues, but written to be understood by a layperson? government sites or a library database

The MOST current news for your own curiosity? LexisNexis database Google news or Yahoo news gathered from a variety of reliable sources.

Efficiency – Make Your Results Better

Use the Advanced Searches in your Search Engine Google: Returns only results with all of your search words --

automatically ANDs terms together; does not support the OR operator. Google HELP.

Google Advanced Search: includes PDF page searches. Allows "all of these words" which is the equivalent of a Boolean "and" search. Also allows limits to specific domains, searching in the title only and phrase searching without using parentheses. Highly Recommended!

AltaVista : Use quotation marks around phrases. The Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT and NEAR can be used in an Advanced Search. Can also limit by domain (.edu, .gov, for example.)AltaVista HELP

AlltheWeb: Uses + for "and" and - for "not." AlltheWeb Help

Ask.com: enter phrases, questions or single words. Ask.com Help

USA.gov: government information. Supports wildcards * and ?. USA.gov Help

Yahoo : Allows the use of the + and - but not Boolean searching. Yahoo HELP

Efficiency – Make Your Results Better Specialized Search Engines –

Searches can be limited to specific file types, such as images, subject areas, such as science, or to certain places on the Internet, such as FAQs or Internet Discussion Groups.

Ditto: Search for images.

USA.gov: Allows searching for information from government sites only.

Google Books

Google Groups: Search or Browse usenet groups. Help.

Google Maps

L-Soft: for finding electronic lists.

Scirus: Searches preapproved scientific Web sites and databases.

Works Sitedhttp://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/sauer/

evaluat.htmlhttp://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/

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