Is it Fool’s Gold or the Real Thing?

Ways to Evaluate Information on the Web

Finding information on the World Wide Web is only the first part of the process. Once you have information, how will you know if it is worthwhile or worthless?

There is a special problem to evaluating information on the Web, especially for those people who are accustomed to looking for information in a library. Printed information found in a library has been evaluated by librarians, editors, publishers, and other reviewers before it has been added to a collection. Also, a library index or database has been produced by professional, educational, or commercial organizations that have evaluated materials for their quality and accuracy.

However, there are no such filters between you and information on the Internet. Anyone can put anything up on a Web site, especially now that it is so easy to construct Web pages and documents. As people have said, Web pages are the ultimate vanity license plates. Therefore, the reader of Web-based information must be especially careful to evaluate what he/she reads.

Don’t believe the information is accurate just because it is on the Web!

Fortunately, librarians have suggested guidelines for evaluating many kinds of information, especially that which can be found on the Web. Here are four basic evaluative criteria, suggested by Elizabeth Kirk of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library of the Johns Hopkins University.

  1. Author: Who wrote the material? Does the author give you biographical (occupation, education, experience information) that supports his/her qualifications to write about this subject? Are you given a way to contact the author if you have questions?
  2. Publishing Body : Who "publishes" or sponsors the Web site? When you look at the web page, do you see a header or footer that shows a connection to a larger Web site? Is there a link on the page that takes you to the home page of the Web site?

    3. What can you learn from the Uniform Resource Locator? Check for the letters just to the left of the first backslash (/). These are some abbreviations used with URLs:

    .edu refers to a U.S. college or university

    .k12 refers to a school that has grades within

    kindergarten – 12

    .com refers to a business or other commercial

    enterprise

    Is it Fool’s Gold or the Real Thing? Ways to Evaluate Information on the Web – Pg. 2

    .org refers to a non-profit organization or

    trade association

    .mil refers to a military site

    .gov refers to a government agency, official or

    organization

    .net refers to a network administration

    Look beyond the first backslash, however. If you see a tilde(~) you may be looking at someone’s personal page within the official pages of a web site.

  3. Currency: How recently has the web site been created or updated? This information should be at the bottom of the web page of the web site. Does the document contain data that needs to be recent? Is there a date connected to that information? ( Example: major league baseball standings as of April 15,

    4. 2001) Does the webs site have links to other sites that no longer exist?

  4. Purpose: Can you tell the reason why the information is on the World Wide Web? Does the material try to provide information, give explanation, persuade, publicize, sell products, or entertain? Sometimes the URL will give you a clue here,

If the URL contains .edu or .gov ---- the purpose may be to provide

factual information

If the URL contains .com ----- the purpose may to promote products

or to provide news and information

If the URL contains .org ----- the purpose may be to influence

public opinion and advocate for

a particular issue.

If the URL contains .net or .com ---- the purpose may be to

entertain

These are general guidelines only. Many times a web site has been created for multiple reasons, and it is sometimes hard to separate them. For example, a commercial site might be selling a product, but it provides entertainment or information in order to get the "customer" (you) into the "store" (web page).

The more you practice evaluation of web pages, the easier it will become to separate the fool’s gold from the true gold. Look at the activities "Be a Detective" and "Compare the Pairs" for some practice.