informationinoneormoreareaslick

1EvaluatingWebContentThisguideofferstipsforevaluatingthequalityofcontentontheWeb.
Inrecentyears,theWebhasbecomearichenvironmentofWebpages,blogs,wikis,socialnetworkingsites,freeresearchservices,mediatypesandmore.
Itcanbeachallengetofigureoutwhichcontenttotrust.
Thisguidewillhelpyoutoidentifythetypeofsiteyouarevisitingandtoevaluateitscontent.
AfewtipstogetyoustartedHereareafewgeneraltipsforevaluatingcontentontheWeb.
Checkthat…theauthorhasexpertiseonthetopic.
Seethenextsectionbelowfordetails.
thesourceofthecontentisstated,whetheroriginalorborrowed,quoted,orimportedfromelsewhere.
MaterialimportedfromanothersourceviaRSSfeedcanbedifficulttoidentify,asthismaterialcanblendinwithothercontentonthepagewithoutbeingappropriatelylabeled.
thecontentcanbeindependentlyverifiedfromothersources.
Thisisespeciallyimportantifyoucannotcheckontheexpertiseoftheauthor,oriftheauthorisnotidentified.
thelevelanddepthoftheinformationmeetsyourneeds.
anattractive,professional‐lookingpresentationdoesn'tfoolyouintoacceptingallthematerialatfacevalue.
Shoddypresentationsareeasiertorecognizeandareawarningtocarefullyscrutinizethematerial.
thesiteiscurrentlybeingmaintained.
Checkforpostingoreditingdates.
up‐to‐dateinformationisprovidedfortopicsthatrequireit.
linksarerelevantandappropriate,andareinworkingorder.
thesiteincludescontactinformation.
thedomainlocationinthesiteaddress(URL)isrelevanttothefocusofthematerial,e.
g.
,.
eduforeducationalorresearchmaterials,.
orgforprofitornon‐profitorganizations.
Notethatthedomainisnotnecessarilyaprimaryindicatorofsitecontent.
Forexample,someauthorsposttheircontentonblogorwikiplatformshostedbycompanieswith.
comaddresses.
UserEducation-PromotingInformationLiteracy2DeterminingtheexpertiseoftheauthorOntoday'sWeb,itcanbeachallengetojudgecontentbasedontheidentityoftheauthor.
Sometimestheauthorisnotstated,oranicknameisused.
Whenanauthor'snameisshown,hereareafewtipsoncheckingoutthisindividual'sexpertise.
SearchalibrarydatabaseorGoogleScholartoidentifyotherwritingsbytheauthor.
SearchforyourauthorinGoogleScholartoseeifothershavecitedworksbyyourauthorintheirownwritings.
"Google"theauthortoidentifyotherwritingsbyorabouttheauthor.
Sometimesanauthor'sparticipationinaconferenceorotherprofessionalactivitycanbeidentifiedinthesearchresults.
Ifavailable,consultan"About"pageontheWebsiteonwhichthecontentappearstoreadtheauthor'sself‐description.
Attempttoverifysomeofthefacts.
Iftheauthorisaffiliatedwithanacademicinstitution,business,ororganization,checkthedirectoryontheassociatedWebsitetoconfirmtheauthor'sstatus.
WebSitesWebsitesareaunifiedcollectionofpagesthatrunthegamutfromeducatingtoinformingtosellingtopersuading,andmaycombinepurposes.
ThecontentgenerallyoriginatesfromtheWebsiteowner,beitanindividual,organization,company,orgovernmententity;however,RSSfeedsmayintroduceimportedcontent.
Examples:AmericanMemory,ASPCA,HistoricalNovelSocietyToevaluatethecontentonaWebsite,lookfortheseclues:Theauthor/producerisidentifiable.
Theauthor/producerhasexpertiseonthesubject.
Lookforan"About"orsimilarpage.
Thetypeofdomain(.
edu,.
org,.
gov,etc.
),whichmayprovidesomecluesaboutthefocusofthematerial.
However,keepinmindthatscholarsandothercontentprovidersmaychoosetomaintaintheirmaterialsonotherdomains,forexample.
com.
Thematerialisuptodate,andthesiteappearstobemaintained.
Checkforupdatedatesonthesite.
Forinformationaloreducationalsites,sourcesaregivenfortheinformation,orlinksareprovidedtorelatedsourcesofinformation.
Youmayneedtoverifytheinformationthroughothersources.
3FreeResearchSitesTheseareWebsitesthatprovideresearchmaterialsorlinkstothesematerials.
Someoftheseservices,suchasAmazon,alsoprovidereaderreviews.
Others,suchasGoogleScholar,featurelinkstootherworksthatciteitsscholarlycontent.
Theyaredistinguishedbytheirabilitytoprovideorlinktoin‐depthinformationinoneormoreareas.
Whilethesitesthemselvesarefree,theymayleadtoinformationthatneedstobepaidfororsubscribedto.
Examples:LibraryThing,Amazon,GoogleScholarToevaluateafreeresearchsite,considerthefollowing:Thecontentisin‐depthandrichenoughtomeetyourneeds.
Theproviderandpurposeofthesite,andwhetherthesemighthaveaneffectontheinformationprovided.
Thetypeofmaterialthatappearsonthesite,e.
g.
,amixtureofscholarlyandpopularmaterials,orscholarlymaterialsonly.
Whetherthesiteprovidesthecontent,orpointstoothersources,whichwouldthenneedtobeevaluatedinturn.
Theeaseofobtainingthefulltextofthematerial,ifitisnotavailablewithinthesiteitself(forexample,theresourcesreturnedinaGoogleScholarsearch).
Mostofthereviewsonthesite,ifpresent,areinformativeandwell‐written.
Theidentityandexpertiseoftheauthororauthorsofthespecificcontentyouareinterestedin.
Amultitudeofpeoplemightcontributeinformation/opinions/reviews,anditmightnotbepossibletogetinformationonthemortheirexpertise.
DocumentRepositoriesDocumentrepositoriesstorecopiesofscholarlyandresearchmaterialsthatareavailableforpublicuse.