research website evaluation. questions to ask what's at stake? how reliable does my information...

ResearchWebsite Evaluation

Questions to ask

• WHAT'S AT STAKE?

• HOW RELIABLE DOES MY INFORMATION HAVE TO BE?

• "Good enough" is good enough ?• Acceptable to my teacher ?

Parts of the URL

www.mywebsite.com/agreatsite/volcanoes.htm

Main web address Homepage

Domain name

Folder nameWeb page name

WHERE?

What CAN THE URLS TELL YOU?

• Who "published" it? Look at the URL up to the first / (dash)

Example: http://music.yahoo.com/lyrics/

www.mtv.com/lyricshttp://

www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/

• Is it a personal page? Look for personal names

Example:

www.jeanneduprau.com/books.shtml

WHERE?

• What type of organization is behind it? Check the domain name

Examples:

http://www.amazon.com

http://www.hayscisd.net/

http://www.worldwildlife.org

.org non – profit organization

.edu university or college

.mil , .gov , .us

government site

.com , .net a business, business related

.uk , .jp a foreign website

{

WHERE?

WHAT CAN THE PERIMETER OF THE PAGE TELL ME?

o Who or what agency is the author?

o What is their bias?"About us“

"Sponsors" "Biography" No background info

WHO?

WHAT DO OTHERS SAY ABOUT THE PAGE?

o Who links to it? Who owns it?Paste the URL into http://alexa.com

o Google the author's name and see what company created your website.

WHO?

WHY WAS IT PUT ON THE WEB? WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE PAGE?

• inform with facts/data?

• share/disclose? • entice/sell? • explain/persuade? • dupe/rant/satire?

WHY?

Practice Website Evaluation

Visit the Website Evaluation page on the SMS Library Research Wiki

http://smslibrarypathfinders.wikispaces.com/Website+Evaluation

Choose one website from List A and one website from List B to evaluate.

Share with your findings with your partner.

TRANSITIONAL PAGE

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