Evaluating Web Pages
After you have conducted your search and found the information
you were looking for, can you trust it?
There are many resources from librarians online that provide information
on criteria to use for evaluating Web pages. A good place to start is
with the “Evaluating
Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions
to Ask” page in UC Berkeley - Teaching Library's “Finding
Information on the Internet: A Tutorial” website. This page and
guides from other sites provide questions to ask about a Web page in
five basic categories: Authority, Accuracy, Objectivity, Currency, and
Content Relevancy or Coverage. Following are a few of the questions to
ask.
Authority
- Is it clear who is responsible for the contents of the page?
- Is there a link to a page describing the purpose of the sponsoring
organization?
- Is it clear who wrote the material and are the author's qualifications
for writing on this topic clearly stated?
- Is contact information (e-mail, address, and phone number) included?
(E-mail alone is not enough.)
- Is the domain appropriate for the content? Check the URL domain (.edu,
.org, .com, .gov)?
Accuracy
- Are the sources for any factual information clearly listed so they
can be verified in another source?
- Is it clear who has the ultimate responsibility for the accuracy
of the content of the material?
- How does this information compare with other sources of information
on this topic?
- Does this page link to other sources and vice versa?
- Is the information free of grammatical, spelling, and typographical
errors? (These kinds of errors not only indicate a lack of quality
control, but can actually produce inaccuracies in information.)
Objectivity
- Has the author or organization clearly stated the goals and/or aims
of the site? (The Web often functions as a virtual soapbox).
- If objectivity is important, is the information presented in an objective
manner?
- Is the information presented free of advertising?
- If there is advertising, is it clearly differentiated from the informational
content?
Currency
- When was the page produced?
- When was it last updated?
- Is any information on the page outdated?
- If material is presented in graphs and/or charts, is it clearly stated
when the data was gathered?
Content Relevancy or Coverage
- Does the page meet your research needs or purpose?
- Are the links (if any) evaluated/annotated and do they complement
the page’s theme?
- If other sources are quoted, is the information accurately cited?
- Is the “tone” of the page appropriate or is it humorous,
parody, or overblown arguments?
- If there is a print equivalent to the Web page, is there a clear
indication of whether the entire work is available on the Web or only
parts of it?
Other sources for guides and more information on evaluating Web pages
include:
Citing Internet resources
When you have found the information that you will use in a newsletter
article or paper, you need to properly cite it. The UNL Libraries page
listed above provides links to two resources. I prefer the annotated
list “Internet
Citation Guides” which is provided by the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, Memorial Library.
Also, since Web pages can come and go, it is a good idea to keep a copy
of the Web page and its address. A printout is a good backup because
it includes the date you read that page. If you save a copy of the page
to a file on disk, you can copy the Web address and include it in the
file.
~ Pam Peters |
