english 1213 dr. jones internet & evaluation frederic murray, mlis instructional services...
TRANSCRIPT
English 1213Dr. Jones
Internet & Evaluation Frederic Murray, MLISInstructional Services Librarian
Defining the World Wide Web
The Internet is…
• a major presence in our daily lives• constantly growing• helping make an enormous
amount of information available
Web Searching is easy because…..• Speed• Choice• Availability 24/7
• Always get an answer
Web searching is difficult because…
• Organization• Quality control• Reliability
Web vs. Library Databases• Web
– Good for current events
– Statistical Information
– Pop Culture– Opinion– Information
about Organizations & Groups
• Library Databases– Research Based Books
& Articles– Full-text Resources– Authoritative & Peer-
reviewed Materials– Information about
People & Cultures– Easier to Search
• AND, OR, NOT• Specific Subjects
Why Can’t I Get this Info on the Web?• Humanities
– American History $29.95 / yr– Journal of Teacher Education $30 / yr– College English $75 / yr
• Nursing & Allied Health– Applied Nursing Research $224 / yr– Nursing Science Quarterly $280 / yr– Journal of Community Health Nursing $475 / yr
• Sciences– Journal of the Optical Society of America $1,760 / yr– Journal of the American Chemical Society $3,589 / yr– Journal of Physics $7,115 / yr
This doesn’t include pricing for electronic access or database subscriptions.
Forming New Habits
Ever wonder what you might be missing?
Forming New Habits
Remember to Evaluate!!!• Authority
– Who created it? Who is responsible?– What credentials do they hold? What makes them
qualified to discuss the topic?• Accuracy
– Can the information be verified?– Check the facts!
• Objectivity– How is the information being presented?– Is it objective or biased? What’s the point of view?
• Currency (important based on subject)– When was it published?– When was it last updated?
Step 1: Authority
• Web Pages– Credentials/Qualifications/Reputation– Who is responsible for content?
• Webmaster?• Web team?• Organization?• Institution?• Company?
Domain Names
• Which one is right?– www.whitehouse.co
m– www.whitehouse.go
v– www.whitehouse.ne
t– www.whitehouse.or
g
• Whois.net– www.whois.net
• .gov• .org• .mil• .com• .edu• .net• .int
Indicates a reliable domain
Domain Names
Domain Names: ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has overall responsibility for managing the Domain Name System.
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
• Web Pages– Biased or Objective?
• Opinion/Fan sites• Sponsoring Organization• Agendas• Political Propaganda• Web hostinghttp://english.aljazeera.net/News http://www.foxnews.com/ http://www.npr.org/
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
Exercise: Evaluation Handout
• www.who.int/en/• www.dhmo.org• www.genochoice.com • www.martinlutherking.org• www.aaip.org/ • http://
www.ashwooduniversity.net/
• Larry Page & Sergey Brin/ Grad Students 1998
• Mission: "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.“
• 2007: 23 Billion dollar corporation
Google: A Tool like any other
Site Specific Command
What it does: searches only specific domains
What to type: bullying site:edu bullying site:gov
What you’ll get: Relevant/Authoritative Sites from education & government websites
Google Scholar
• Google Scholar provides a simple way to search for scholarly literature. Search across 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
– Fee-based– Often your Library already owns
material
– We’re working on improving access
RSS Feeds
RSS Feeds
• Gather information from across the Web and bring it to you– RSS in Plain English (video)– Library databases are now
incorporating RSS feeds into their products, check here for more information.
RSS Feeds - Services
• Google Reader• NewsGator• FeedReader• SharpReader
Wikipedia
Wiki: A Web application that allows users to add content to a collaborative hypertext Web resource (coauthoring), as in an Internet forum, and permits others to edit that content
(open editing).
Wikipedia
• Jimmy Wales January 15, 2001• No Original Research• NPOV (Neutral point of view)• No owners, multiple anonymous
authors• Anyone with Internet access can
create or edit an entry…Anyone
Wikipedia
• Contributors: male, English speaking, denizens of the Internet.
• Problem is not that it disregards the facts, but that it elevates them above all else.
• Most of the content is discussion/history of edits & not the entries themselves.
Rosenzweig, Roy. “Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the
Past.” The Journal of American History 93.1 (2006): 117-146.
Wikipedia
• Participation maps popular, not academic concerns
• It is a working community…but is it a good historical resource?
• Lack of Critical Analysis• Problematic as a sole source of
information • Like all encyclopedias…ok to start,
terrible place to stop. • Benefits are to its active participants,
not its readers.
The Machine is Us/ing Us
Writing Your Paper
• Writing Center– Located in the basement of the
library– Call for appointment #774-7083
• MLA Style– Style Sheets– MLA Handbook at Reference &
Circulation Desk– http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/
