Evaluating Internet Website Resources
Toronto Public Library offers many basic internet instruction workshops in a variety of branch locations. Instructors teach participants how to use search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo, Ask etc.) and subject directories (e.g. Google, Yahoo, Internet Public Library, Recommended Websites on the TPL website etc.) to access information on different topics. But how do people evaluate that information? What tools are available to help them?
In “ Web Basics II: An Intermediate Level Workshop on World Wide Web Searching”, Toronto Public Library instructors deal with the topic of evaluating websites and their information. The University of British Columbia Library tells us to consider factors such as author/source, accuracy, currency, objectivity, coverage and purpose. Similarly, Dalhousie University Libraries lists six criteria of authority, purpose, coverage, currency, objectivity and accuracy and advises researchers not to rely on the internet as the sole reliable information source. Dalhousie University Libraries also advises how to list websites accessed for research purposes, identify different types of websites by website address or URL (= Uniform/Universal Resource Locator), and evaluate health-oriented websites.
Queen’s University Library lists the factors of accuracy, authority, currency, purpose and relevance to be considered when evaluating website content, and invites students to use a British-based “interactive tutorial” called the Internet Detective to help evaluate internet resources.
Sources:
Dalhousie University Libraries, “Evaluating Web Resources: Critically assess the quality of a website”, Dalhousie University Libraries: Using the Library (Website Section), [n.d.]. <http://libraries.dal.ca/using_the_library/tutorials/evaluating_web_resources.html>. Accessed April 5, 2011.
Dalhousie University Libraries. “6 Criteria for Websites”, Dalhousie University Libraries: Using the Library (Website Section), [n.d.]. <http://libraries.dal.ca/using_the_library/tutorials/evaluating_web_resources/6_criteria_for_websites.html>. Accessed April 5, 2011.
Intute Virtual Training Suite. “Internet Detective” (Website), 2009. <http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/index.html>. Accessed April 5, 2011.
Queen’s University. Stauffer Humanities and Social Sciences Library. “Evaluating Web Sources”, Queen’s University Stauffer Humanities and Social Sciences Library (Website), 30 March 2011. <http://library.queensu.ca/inforef/tutorials/qcat/evalint.htm>. Accessed April 5, 2011.
University of British Columbia Libraries. “Evaluating Internet Resources”, UBC Library (Website), October 7, 2010. <http://help.library.ubc.ca/researching/evaluating-internet-sources/>. Accessed April 5, 2011.
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