Evaluating Web Sites

Grammar of the Internet

Adapted from Alan November

Terms and Concepts

• URL   -  General to specific with subdirectories

· http://cas.memphis.edu/~mcrouse/elcite.html

· http://cas.memphis.edu/~mcrouse/

· http://cas.memphis.edu/

Authority

• Is the author identified?
• Does it list his/her credentials (degrees, position, place of employment)
• Is the author qualified in the area?
• Do a web or online database search on the author's name to see what you can find.

Currency

• Is the date of the original posting listed?
• Is the latest revision date listed?
• Is the information current?
• If not, does it need to be more current?
• Are there dead links?

Coverage

• Is information missing?
• Is the information complete?
• Is the site under construction?
• Has the site received any awards?

Accuracy

• Is the information free from errors?
• Are there spelling/grammar errors?
• How does the site compare to print resources?
• Are facts and statistics documented?  Can you find the original source?
• Has the author cited sources and documented information?

Objectivity / Reliability

• What is the purpose of the site
• Entertainment
• Advocacy
• Personal
• News
• Business/Marketing
• Informational
• Is someone sponsoring the site that might influence information?
• Is the site trying to promote or sell something?
• Is there advertising?
• Is information not presented for a reason?
• Are all the links internal or self-sites?
• Truncate the internal links to see what else is on the site.
• http://cas.memphis.edu/~mcrouse/elcite.html
• http://cas.memphis.edu/~mcrouse/
• Who else links to this site?

• Do a search on AltaVista
• Search for link: + URL with no spaces (i.e. link:http://www.cheney268.com)

• Is this a personal site? (/~  or /users/)
• What external links are there?
• Truncate the external links to see what else is on the site.

• What does the domain name tell you?

o .gov, .edu, .com, .net, .org, ks.us

o www.cheney268.com

o www.whitehouse.gov

o http://www.whitehouse.org

o www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html

o http://buhler.usd313.k12.ks.us/

Other Evaluation Resources

• Evaluating Web Sites
• http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/webeval.html
• Evaluation of Information Sources
• http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~agsmith/evaln/evaln.htm

Try evaluating these sites:

• http://pubweb.acns.nwu.edu/~abutz/index.html

• http://www.martinlutherking.org/
• Information Literacy

Hoax Sites

http://directory.google.com/Top/Reference/Education/Instructional_Technology/Evaluation/Web_Site_Evaluation/Hoax_Sites/

RLS

9/22/2004