Information Literacy

Some Things You Should Know

•R

•E

•A

•L

Four Step Strategy

•R - Read the URL

•E - Examine the site’s content

•A - Ask about the author/publisher

•L - Look at the links

Do you recognize the domain name?

For example: amazon.com

What is the extension in the domain name?

For example: .com and .edu

Files extensions

.edu – Educatioanal organization (most US universities)

.k12 – US school site (not all schools use this)

.ac – Academic institution (outside the US)

.sch – School site (some schools outside the US use this)

.com – Company (usually .c0 in the UK)

.org – Any organization (non-profit)

.gov – Government agency

.net – Network

.mil – Military institution

• .biz

• .name

• .pro

• .info

All used for commercial purposes

New File Extensions

Extensions can also include country codes

.uk .ca .za

For complete list refer to the Computer User High-Tech Dictionary

Some provide more reliable information

.edu .gov .k12

Be watchful

.com .net .org

These domains can be purchased by anyone

Are you on a personal page?

Created by an individual Name in URL Presence of ~ (tilde) or % (percent)

For example:

http://pubweb.northwesten.edu/~abutz/di/intro

Examining the Content

Is the information on the website useful for your topic?

Are additional resources and links provided Do the links work? Is the site current Do you think the information is accurate Does the information contradict information

you have found elsewhere?

The History of a Website

The Wayback Machine

www.archive.org

From 1996 – a few months ago

Can’t Tell a URL by It’s Name

http://www.martinlutherking.org/

A Little History of the Website

Let’s visit the Wayback Machine

Who is the Author/Publisher

Use the Whois

http://www.easywhois.com

Forward Links

What are the URLs of the forward links? Do the domain names change? Is the information biased?

External Links

Who is linked to the website? What is the purpose of the link? What do other sites say about the informaion

on the site?

Finding External Links

In AltaVista you can use the link command

For example:

link:http://www.zapatopi.net/treeoctopus

Scanning the External Links

Ask yourself the following questions: Who is linked to the website? What is the purpose of the link? What do other sites say about the

information on the site?