Evaluating Internet Sources and Information
Overall, information found on the Internet is not as reliable as information
found in books, magazines, or other printed sources. Steep printing costs
and editing or reviewing processes have kept printed sources largely limited
to a relatively small group of people and organizations. On the other
hand, literally anybody can publish anything they want on the Internet
for virtually no cost at all. A twelve-year old can pass himself off as
a college professor, or a surgeon can make herself seem to be an expert
archaeologist.
Websites
Before using information from a website, ask yourself what you know about:
- The author
- The information on the webpage
- The sponsor of the website
- The homepage itself
Author
- Who is the author of the information?
- What is their background; where did they get their knowledge?
- Are they recognized by others as an authority on this subject?
- Have they published on this subject elsewhere (books, magazine articles,
etc.)?
- What is the author's purpose in providing this information?
- Do they or their affiliated organizations have a political or
other bias?
- Do they seem to have a hidden agenda that they're trying to push
on others?
Information
- Is this is the original source of the information, or is this a (possibly
misrepresented) quote from another source?
- Does the information seem to be accurate, reliable and valid?
- Is the information balanced and objective, or is it one-sided, incomplete,
or biased towards a particular viewpoint?
- How does the information compare with other related sources?
- Who is the intended audience?
Sponsor
- What person or organization sponsors the webpage or the entire website?
- Look for things like .../~johnson or .../users/jones in the address,
which shows that this is just somebody's personal webpage
- Be aware that you can easily "buy" website names like
"www.thegreatest.com"
- Does the sponsor have a bias or other purpose for "pushing"
this information?
- Paid subscription sites, like Encyclopedia Britannica or ProQuest,
typically have paid money to verify the information on their site; that's
why they charge to access them
Homepage
- Currency
- When was the page last updated?
- How often is it updated?
- Stability
- Is the site sponsored by a long-standing organization that will
be around for some time, or is it somebody's personal webpage?
- Awards
- Sometimes you can use webpage awards as an indication that others
view the content as being reliable or trustworthy, but many "awards"
are fairly meaningless
- References
- Are links to other pages on the same topic provided?
- Are other printed or electronic references cited?
- Popularity
- Do they provide a counter to show how often this site has been accessed
by others?
- How many other Web pages link to this page?
- Go to www.altavista.com
and type "link:www.homepage.org" (use the correct address
instead of www.homepage.org) in the search field to find other pages
that link to the page in question
- Contact
- Is an e-mail address or link provided so you can contact the author?
- Organization
- Is the page well-organized, nicely formatted, showing care in its
presentation?
Other Internet Sources
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Finally, a note about other online information sources. You need to be
even more cautious when evaluating information found on Listservs, in
e-mail messages, and in Usenet newsgroup postings, largely because it's
even more difficult to find information about the author's background
and qualifications. Use the same questions that are listed above to evaluate
these sources, but realize that there will be many questions that you
won't be able to answer.
Information for this listing was gathered from Marcia
Alldredge, Brooks Haderlie, Washington State University Libraries, Idaho
State Library Teleconference (02/11/98) |