Evaluating Online SourcesMrs. Tarr

Fort LeBoeuf High SchoolLibrary February 2011

Who created this site?

• Who designed this web page?• What are the person or

organization’s credentials? • Is the site professional-looking and

free of obvious errors?• What is the domain name?

– .com, .org, .gov, .edu

What is the purpose of the site?

• To educate or inform?• To sell something?• To persuade you to believe

something?• Can you tell fact from opinion?

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American Lung Association

• Cigarette smoking during childhood and adolescence causes significant health problems, including respiratory symptoms such as coughing, phlegm and wheezing; asthma-related symptoms; and impaired lung growth.

• Smoking is responsible for approximately one in five deaths in the United States.

• 90 % of adults who smoke started by age 21 and half of them had become regular smokers by their 18th birthday.

What content is included?

• Are both sides of an issue presented?• Is the site current? Look for a date.• Does the site have information you

have seen in print sources?• Does the site have a lot of

information, or is it limited in details?

Things to Remember:

• Authorship – who created this site?• Purpose – what is the purpose of this

site? What do the creators want me to do?

• Content – does it have legitimate information I’ve seen in other print and online sources?

• Currency – how old (or new) is this site?

Searching Tips:

• Search engines like Google search the entire world wide web.

• Subject directories like Yahoo search websites that human beings have researched.

• Vary your search terms – changing just one word in the search box can give you different results.

Googling tips:

• Add site:edu or site:org after your words– This will eliminate all of the .coms, .nets,

etc.

• Use define: before a word to get a list of definitions.

• Use a ~ in front of a word and your search will also look for synonyms of that word.

Bibliography

American Lung Association. 2008. 16 October 2008. http://www.lungusa.orgBerger, Pam. 21st Century Strategies for Strengthening Your School Library

Program. Bellevue, WA: Bureau of Education & Research, 2008.Google. 10 September 2006. www.google.com “Harry Potter.” www.google.com 10 September 2006.

netfrance.m6blog.m6.fr High School Ace. 16 October 2008. http://highschoolace.com/ace/ace.cfm “Smoker.” www.google.com 10 September 2006.

http://www.sandiegojack.com/ Valenza, Joyce. A WebQuest About Evaluating Websites. 2 January 2001.

http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/evalwebstu.html 10 September 2006.“Witchcraft.” www.google.com 10 September 2006.

www.law.umkc.edu/.../ftrials/salem/SAL_IHAN.HTM Yahoo. 10 September 2006. www.yahoo.comAlways cite your sources!

(This includes images that you put in your presentation.)