Evaluating Websites
By: Anderson Barnes and Krystal
Barnes
Credibility
• Determine how credible the site is
• Examine the URL
• Look for an "About this Site" link to learn
more about the individual, organization,
agency, or corporation hosting the site.
Bias
• Trace the URL back to the parent
institution
• information may be presented from
different viewpoints
Audience
• All websites are written with a particular
audience in mind.
• Is the level of the site appropriate for your
needs
• Does the text use technical or scholarly
language and assume the reader is
educated
Accuracy
• Determine if the site is factual
• Compare the information presented to
other resources
• Look for documentation for the information
provided
Currency
• currency is important when evaluating
factual information
• It is important to note the date a document
was created and updated
• Just because a page was recently updated
does not mean that the information is up-
to-date
Relevance
• find the balance between too much versus
not enough information
• During your initial search, explore broadly
so that you don't exclude anything you
may later decide is important.
• content is not valuable to you unless it is
significant
Propaganda
• Propaganda, noun
"The systematic propagation of information or ideas by
an interested party, esp. in a tendentious way in order to
encourage or instill a particular attitude or response.
Also, the ideas, doctrines, etc., disseminated thus; the
vehicle of such propagation." (from Oxford English
Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989)
• Taking Material and making it seem like the right thing to
do.
Coverage of Documents
• Are the links (if any) evaluated and do they
complement the documents' theme
• Is it all images or a balance of text and
images
• Is the information presented cited correctly
Objectivity
• Determine if page is a mask for
advertising; if so information might be
biased.
• View any Web page as you would an
infomercial on television. Ask yourself why
was this written and for whom
GOOD OR BAD??
GOOD!!!!
BAD
Bibliography
• "Evaluating Information: Websites." University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill Libraries - Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2009.
.
• "Evaluating Internet information." The Sheridan Libraries Homepage. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2009.
.
• "Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask." The
Library-University of California, Berkeley. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2009.
.
• "Five criteria for evaluating Web pages." Home | Cornell University Library.
N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2009.
.
• "ICYouSee: T is for Thinking." Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY. N.p., n.d. Web.
7 Dec. 2009. .