Web Resources

Why use web resources?

• Speed of finding information (sometimes!)

• Currency: Web information is often more up-to-date

• Availability: web resources are available to everyone in a wide variety of places, often right at home.

Web Resources

Web resources are different from library resources

• No one checks the information on the web.

• Anyone can put anything on the web.

• YOU are the one who must decide if the website’s information is accurate, balanced information!

Web terminology:•Website: a group of individual webpages.

•Domain name: the segments of the web address which are before the first /.

Web Resources

•gov = government website

•edu = college or university

•org = organization (not for profit)

•com = commercial site, to sell goods, services

•net = network; rents space to others

Web Resources - Evaluation

What to look at:1. Content

2. Authority

3. Viewpoint of source

4. Proximity of the source

5. Accuracy / Timeliness

Content•Is the information meaningful and useful to you for the particular project?

•Can you understand it? Does it help support or refute your thesis statement?

Web Resources - Evaluation

Web Resources - Evaluation

Example:

This website lists supposed facts about marijuana, but there is no source given for those facts. Information that can’t be traced to a source should not be used for research unless the facts can be verified elsewhere.

Content

Authority•Who publishes (or owns) the website?

•Do the publishers have an “agenda” or a cause to promote?

•Are they trying to sell anything?

•Is the author’s name stated?

•Is the author a specialist?

Web Resources - Evaluation

Web Resources - Evaluation

Examples:

This website is sponsored by PlanetRx, a drug retailer. The editor of the site is one of the leading health writers in the

United States, and there is a doctor on the management staff.

The information included here may well be accurate, but we should remember that it may also be biased because

the main purpose of the site is to sell pharmaceuticals.

Authority

Web Resources - Evaluation

Examples:

This website is sponsored by the Depression and Related Affective Disorders Association in conjunction with Johns

Hopkins University. The association is comprised of patients, family of patients, and professionals. It is a non-profit

organization.

This is a better source of information than the first website.

Authority

Viewpoint•Do you find evidence of any sort of bias or

slant of the material, either by the webmaster or the publisher?

Web Resources - Evaluation

•Is the content objective or subjective (fact or fantasy?)

•Does the website use the first person (“ I ”) or slang? Are there misspellings?

Web Resources - Evaluation

Examples:

This website uses the hammer and sickle (symbol of the communist party) and other images to make it show that they have a definite opinion on the issue of gun control. It is clear right from the beginning that the information

found on this website will only show one side of the gun control issue.

Viewpoint

Immediacy

•Is the website up-to-date?

•Does the information contain primary source material (i.e., was the author actually involved in the actions he/she is writing about?)

Web Resources - Evaluation

Accuracy

Web Resources - Evaluation

Do you believe the information is accurate?

Why do you have reason to believe this?