Internet Evaluation

Jane Long MLIS, University of OklahomaMA, English, Wright State University

Reference Services LibrarianAl Harris Library jane.long@swosu.edu

• 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/

Remember the Value of Alexa

Known for providing information on web traffic

• 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• jane.long@swosu.edu• 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!