Knowledge is Empowerment EVALUATING WEBSITES AND SOURCES Tutorial 45

Knowledge is Empowerment

EVALUATING WEBSITES AND SOURCES

Tutorial 45


Today’s objective is that you learn how to be critical in selecting the sites you are getting information from.

The web is full of academic information; you only need to learn how to find it. It is important to know how to evaluate the information you want to cite.

• We will start with the evaluation of web pages/ sites and continue with evaluation of sources.


Evaluation of web pages/ sites:

Start with looking at the URL domain, (between http:// and the first /) http://usuniversity.edu/Is it a personal page? Does it have a personal name followed by a tilde, a percent sign, or words like “people”, “users” or “members”? Is the server a commercial ISP like aol.com or geocities.com?


Important issues while looking at the domain:

• Is the domain educational? “.edu” or a nonprofit organization? “.org”

• Is the domain commercial? “.com”

• Is the domain a government site? “.gov”, “.mil”

• Is the country code from the country you are looking for? “.us”, “.ca”, “.uk”


Determining who is the “publisher”, agency, or person operating the “server”, (between http:// and the first /):

• http://circuit.sdsu.edu/ = Circuit. San Diego State University

• http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/standards/standards.pdf = American Library Association

• http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED430564.pdf = Educational Resource Information Center

• https://www.ffa.org/programs/grantsandscholarships/Scholarships/ = FFA


You also need to learn how to identify the University acronym

• usuniversity.edu (United States University)• ucsd.edu (University of California in San Diego)• You will find that with a URL within United

States, the Country is not mentioned:– digitalcommons.calpoly.edu– minds.wisconsin.edu– docs.lib.purdue.edu– deepblue.lib.umich.edu


For the rest of the world, you need to learn the acronyms for each country

• “ca” for Canada, “mx” for Mexico, “es” for Spain, “au” for Australia or “uk” for United Kingdom.– usir.salford.ac.uk– discovery.ucl.ac.uk– eprints.qut.edu.au– fcm.ens.uabc.mx


Narrow your results by domain:

• If searching Google – Advanced Search, http://www.google.com/advanced_search you can also narrow your results by Site or domain.

• For example search google advanced search “web site evaluation” and limit the domain to site:.edu

• Or limit your results to a domain like .org or .gov


Look for the background of the site, truncate back the URL

• i.e. delete the end characters of the URL stopping just before each /. Press enter and check, you will find interesting information or none.– www.gatesfoundation.org/topics/pages/

scholarships.aspx– www.gatesfoundation.org/topics/– www.gatesfoundation.org/


Find out who is the author or the responsible body. Google is a good source.

• Search Google Blog Search and learn what they say about the web site.

• Caution: do not use the information if there is no confirmation about the author or a page update.

• You need to critically question everything you find on the web. Where did the author retrieve the information? Are they reliable sources?

• Well-developed pages include links to other pages with the opposite point of view

• Do the links work?


Check in alexa.com what are the webpages that link to this particular page

Copy and paste or type the URL you are evaluating, click search and click on the “get details” button:

– Find out the traffic of the webpage– Ownership information– Related links to other sites who visited the

page– Sites linking to the webpage


Evaluating Information Sources

• You will need to ask these questions, whether your source is printed or online, if it is a book, an image or article from a journal, newspaper, a website or any source you want to cite:– Authority– Timeliness– Accuracy– Coverage


Authority:

• Is there an author? What is the author’s affiliation? Has the author produced more works? Are these works cited? Can you contact the author?

• Is the domain in the URL “.edu” (education), “.com” (commercial) or “.gov (Government)?”

• Is there a tilde (~) in the URL? This may indicate a personal web directory


Timeliness:

• Is there a date when the research started or the document was created?

• Has the document been revised, edited or updated?

• If it is a website, when was the last time the site was updated?


Accuracy:

• Is the source in a peer-reviewed publication or journal? If not, can you verify the factual information or who is responsible for the information?

• If it contains graphs, charts or images, are the sources clear?


Coverage:

• For online sources from a website, is the document complete?

• Make sure citations and quotations are correct.


For more information see:

• http://library.sdsu.edu/reference/research/evaluating-information from San Diego State University

• http://help.library.ubc.ca/evaluating-and-citing-sources/evaluating-information-sources/ from University of British Columbia.

• http://library.albany.edu/usered/eval/evalweb/ from University at Albany Libraries

• http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html from Berkeley Libraries

• •


How are we taking you on this journey of knowledge?

• Do you have some questions?Do you have suggestions?Are you familiar with URLAre you evaluating your sources before citing them?


For more information

• Please contact• M.L.S Catalina Lopez

• [email protected]• (619) 477 6310 Ext 2017

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Knowledge is Empowerment EVALUATING WEBSITES AND SOURCES Tutorial 45