Evaluating Internet Resources

By Amy V. CummingsLibrary Media Specialist

What are the signs that a Web site is not reliable?

• Bias• Inappropriate Material• Dated Information • Inaccurate Information• Grammatical and Typographical Errors

How do you determine if a site is acceptable?• Who is responsible for the page? Look for links such

as “about this site.”• Who is the intended audience?• What is it? Is it someone’s school project, short story,

advertisement, or personal site? (.gov, .edu, .org?)• How thoroughly is the topic covered?• Are references or a bibliography given to credit the

information on the site?• When was the site last updated?

Examples of what you should avoid:• http://members.aol.com/mhirotsu/kevin/trip2.html

The site is visually distracting and there are no links to check authorship.

• http://www.comparativereligion.com At first this looks like a comprehensive site, but it’s actually written from one point of view.

• http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus.html It looks reputable, but it is deceptive to the unsuspecting and inexperienced.

Examples of good sites:• http://www.mrdowling.com Although

it is privately created and maintained, the information is accurate, often updated, and contact information is provided.

• http://www.cdc.gov Government sites are usually safe sources of accurate information and reliable statistics.

• http://www.chemicalelements.com It is easy to see who is responsible for this excellent site.

Resources for further study:• WebQuest about evaluating Web sites by Joyce Valenza

http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/evalwebstu.html• University at Albany Libraries “Evaluating Internet

Resources” http://library.albany.edu/internet/evaluate.html

• Kathy Schrock’s Critical Evaluation Information http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html

• Lake Forest College Library “Evaluating Web Sites” http://www.lib.lfc.edu/internetsearch/evalweb.html