How do you know
information from a Web page is true, accurate and of reasonable
quality?
Although
publishers, editorial boards or reviewers usually (although, not
always) decide whether books or magazine or newspaper articles are
accurate and of decent enough quality to be published, anyone can
create a Web page with no screening at all. You should always
critically evaluate any information you receive, but it is especially
important to evaluate information from the Internet. The questions
below should be asked when evaluating any web page. They can provide
some useful guidelines and criteria to help you evaluate the quality
and reliability of web pages.
Who is the
author or institution?
- If an
individual has written the page, is biographical information about
the author available? Such information could include: educational
and other credentials, occupational position, institutional
affiliation and address. Try doing a search on a web search engine
to see if the author's name comes up in other web
pages.
- If an
institution has authored the page, is information available about
that institution, including its purpose, history and street
address? Try doing a search on a web search engine to see if the
institution's name comes up in other web pages.
- What clues
does the URL (Internet address) provide about the page? Read:
"Basic
URL Structure"
(http://www.lehigh.edu/~inwww/old_seminar/url-basics.html)
How current
is the information?
- Is there a
date on the page that indicates when the page was created and/or
updated?
- If no
date is listed on the page, select "Document Info" from
the Netscape "View" pull-down menu. This will show the
date and time the page was last updated.
- Is there
some information that is clearly out of date?
Who is the
audience?
- Is the page
intended for the general public, or is it meant for specific
groups, such as scholars, members of an organization, children,
etc.
Is the
content accurate and objective?
- Are there
political, ideological, cultural religious or institutional
biases?
- Is the
content intended to be a brief overview of the information or an
in-depth analysis?
- If the
information is opinion, is this clearly stated?
- Are facts or
assertions documented with credible documentation?
What is the
purpose of the information?
For further
information on evaluating web pages, see "Evaluating
Information on the Internet"
by D. Scott Brandt, Purdue University
Libraries
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last
revised: 4-16-02
by Eric Brenner, Skyline College, San Bruno, CA
These materials may be used for educational purposes if you
inform and credit the author and cite the source as:
Skyline College Library. All commercial
rights are reserved. To contact the author, or send comments
or suggestions, email: Eric Brenner at
brenner@smccd.net
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