FAU Libraries - Library Online Tutorial

WORLD WIDE WEB
Databases vs. WWW
Evaluating the Web
Web Resources

Evaluating Web Resources

It's important to know how to evaluate Web resources so that we can effectively use them in our research papers. Here are a few things to look for on Webpages or Websites when evaluating them for their worthiness and merit.

Author

Is the author's name provided, and perhaps just as importantly, is there contact information about the author?

Does it say where the author works, what she or he does for a living, or any other biographical or professional information?

Look for links that say, "About Us," or "About Me."

Date

Is the information current or timely?

Look for something that says the page was last updated fairly recently. Depending on what you're looking for, something that was published on the Web back in 1995 definitely is not current news.

Accuracy

Are there typographical errors such as misspelling or improper grammar throughout the text? Does it rely heavily on bias or obviously false statements?

Documentation

Does the author provide footnotes or quotations to scholarly works?

Where is the author getting her or his information?

Links

Where do the links on the page take you? Are they dead?

Are the sites authoritative?

Audience

For what type of audience is this Website intended? Are you getting research information for your senior geography thesis from someone's vacation diary to the Grand Canyon? Is it appropriate? If you're doing research on children's television for an education course, can the Sesame Street Website serve as a valuable resource?

Domain

Look closely at the URL. Does it end in .com (commerce or commercial site given to a corporation or business), .gov (government), .org (nonprofit or research organization, i.e. not commercially related), .edu (education)?

If you're looking for government information, are you sure that a .com website is the best place to look?

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