A CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING WEBSITES

• Who is the intended audience?
• Who is the author and the author's affiliations if any?
• What is the purpose of the Web Page & what does it contain?
  
• Is there a bias or slant to the information?
  
• Is the document well-written?
  
• When was the site published and how recently was it updated?
  
• Are the links relevant and appropriate for the site?
  
• Is there a good balance of inward-focused and outward focused sites?
  
• Are multimedia and graphics used appropriately or are they distractions?
  
• How reliable are the links; are there broken links, or references to sites which have been moved?
• Is contact information for the author or producer included in the document?
• Is the document well designed?
  

Visit the following sites for bibliographies on evaluating internet resources:

http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/webstrbib.htm

http://lib.nmsu.edu/staff/susabeck/checsref.html#bib

A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR SEARCHING THE INTERNET

1.  Consult the help menu of each search engine for tips:  If you spend a some time learning about the search engine you are using by reviewing the Help or Tips page, you will gain information on how to execute more effective searches.

2.  Use Subject Directories:  Directories are available on most search engines.  They help organize sites into useful categories. Directories look something like this one on Yahoo.

3. Develop a search strategy:  Make a list of search terms.  Think carefully about the words that represent what you are looking for and use unique terms when appropriate (i.e., don’t put in “sports” if you want “racket ball” or “long-haired cats” if you want “angoras.”

4.  Try a variety of search engines:  Search engines vary considerably and results will differ accordingly.  Become familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of these search tools.  A good site to visit for the characteristics of the various search tools  is http://www.albany.edu/library/internet/choose.html

5.  Use capitalization:  Some search engines are case sensitive.

6.  Use double quotations to denote a phrase:  This is a good method to refine your search, but results are not always good on the simple search screen.  Some will perform this kind of search better on the advanced search screen.  You will need to experiment.

7. Familiarize yourself with both modes of searching, simple and advanced: Advanced searching will allow you to apply more options to a search and hence retrieve more relevant sites. However, some sites that have developed and refined their “natural language” features do not require advanced searching. Alta Vista and Ask Jeeves are two search tools that have highly effective simple search modes: http://www.aj.com/ .

8. Learn the lingo. For a good internet glossaries try these sites:

http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Glossary/GlossaryDL.html

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Glossary.html

http://eon.law.harvard.edu/property/introtech/glossary.html

An education site would have what in its address?

.com
.net
.gov
.edu

2. A browser is::

A planned method of exchanging data over the Internet
A method of storing an image in digital format
A user defined list of preferred URLs to a given WWW document
A program that enables you to access the Internet and view Web pages

Have some fun! Visit this site and follow the directions! http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/hoax/index.htm

Designed and maintained by Sharon Elteto at 503-725-4190.

Email: eltetos@pdx.edu

 

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