Internet Evaluation
Jane Long MLIS, University of OklahomaMA, English, Wright State University
Reference Services LibrarianAl Harris Library [email protected]
• Web Pages–
Credentials/Qualifications/Reputation– Who is responsible for content?
• Webmaster?• Web team?• Organization?• Institution?• Company?
Step 1: Authority
Step 2: Accuracy
• Web Pages– Can the information be verified?
• Links to credible sites• Copyright• Works Cited• Fact check with a printed source
Step 3: Objectivity
Biased or Objective?• Sponsoring Organization• Agendas• Political Propaganda• Web hosting
Do you trust the author or organization providing the information
Step 4: Currency
• Web Pages– When was it created and last
updated?• Well maintained web sites have an
indication when it was last updated or modified
• Accessibility– Dead links
• Stability– Changes URLs frequently
Internet Evaluation Worksheet• Open this link for your instructions• The next slide provides links to
the sites you will be using for your evaluation.
Exercise: Evaluation Handout• Institute for Historical Review
– http://www.ihr.org/• Pinehearst Inc.
– http://pinehearstresearch.com/index.shtml• Southern Poverty Law Center
– http://splcenter.org/index.jsp • Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
– http://www.deloitte.com/• Harry Ransom Center
– http://www.hrc.utexas.edu• American University for the Humanities
– http://www.auh.edu/
• Larry Page & Sergey Brin/ Grad Students 1998
• Mission: "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.“
• 2009: 20 billion dollar corporation
Google: A Tool like any other
Site Specific Command
What it does: searches only specific domains
What to type: nursing jobs site:edu nursing jobs site:com nursing jobs site:org
• Google Scholar provides a simple way to search for scholarly literature. The search crosses many disciplines and sources--peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles--from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
Google Scholar
• Works best for Citations• Restrictions to Content
– Now included in SWOSU’s list of databases
– We’re working on improving access
– Example: Greening Community Resources
Check for Objectivity: News Sites on the Web• Christian Science Monitor -
www.csmonitor.com• USA Today - www.usatoday.com• British Broadcasting Company
(BBC) - http://news.bbc.co.uk/• Washington Post -
www.washingtonpost.com• Slate - www.slate.com
Contact me: Jane Long
• 774-3030• [email protected]• http://faculty.swosu.edu/jane.long/
• To help us improve our instruction please take the following survey at the end of today's class—January 28, 2010: Click here to take the survey
Questions?
Thanks!