Evaluating Online Resources Notebook

This old Web 1.0 notebook is a decade-old, but constantly updated meta-site on validating online resources. Please suggest additions by emailing me - Ray schroeder.ray@uis.edu

Basic Principles*

Authority -- Who owns/operates the server/site? Where is it located?
Coverage -- Is the material relevant?
Objectivity and Accuracy -- How accurate, objective, balanced is the site?
Currency -- Is the information up to date?

* Evaluating Internet Information, Virginia Tech

The Internet Detective -- an online tutorial
An online tutorial on evaluating Internet resources. Produced by the University of Brisol (U.K.) in cooperation with the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands), this online tutorial examines rationale and methods of evaluating resources on the Internet

Who Has Already Validated the Site?

An important validation tool is to determine who links to the site in question. Those who have included links to the site on their own home sites have made the decision to stake their reputation on the site by referring others to that location. It is analogous to placing a citation in a published article.

To determine who has linked to the site in question, use one of the large search engines to look for links to the URL. For example, to see who has linked to Ray's Online Learning Update Blog at UIS, go to Google Search Engine and enter the phrase "link:http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/onlinelearning/blogger.html" (do not include the quotation marks and do not include any spaces) . This will return pages in the Google database which include links to Ray's Online Learning Update blog at UIS. In turn, one can visit the sites which have elected to link to Ray' blog to see the range and nature of those who, themselves, have validated the site. If you have trouble typing/copying in the long URL, click on this link to see how it works. You get the idea: just precede the URL of the site you are investigating with link: that will return a list of sites linking to the URL.

Key Online Resources

Evaluating Web Pages - UC Berkeley

Thinking Critically about WWW Resources -- UCLA College Library

Evaluating Web Sites - Cornell Library

Comparing and Evaluating Web Resources -- From Now On

Testing the Surf -- University of Houston Libraries

Thinking Critically about What You See on the Web -- Ithaca College Library

Evaluating Information Found on the Internet – Johns Hopkins University

Evaluating Internet Resources – Milner Library at Illinois State University

Evaluating Web Sites - Lake Forest College Library

Evaluating Online Resources -- Edsitement

Evaluating Web Sites - Lesley Univeristy