Finding and Evaluating Web Resources

AV1003: Introduction to Digital Humanities

How to find things on the Web• Index or gateway

– Voice of the Shuttle [x]– Intute [x]

• Web site of organization– Society for History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing [x]– British Library [x]– Home dept: superseded at KCL by ISS Subject resources eg

Arts & Humanities [x]

• Use full-text searching– Google [x]– A9 [x]– See class notes for an extensive list of alternatives

Tricks of the Trade

• Sampling – use ranking and vary sample rate accordingly.

• Broken links - mistyping- network or server error - defunct address

• Understanding URLs

Information Quality on the Web

• There is little or no control of what appears on the Web.

• Two aspects to quality in web information quality of content quality of presentation

Criteria for assessing content

• Authority

• Nature, Purpose and Audience

• Currency

• Objectivity

• Coverage

• Bibliographic Support

• Aesthetics and Craftsmanship

Authority

• Personal or institutional?• What do I know about the author?• Institutional Affiliation• Sponsors or affiliated institutions• Is Contact Information provided?Remember: all this can be checked on the

web!

Link

Nature, Purpose and Audience

• Link• What is the purpose of the page?• What is the assumed context?• What is intended audience• Does the design of the page suggest the

kind of audience? Link1 Link2

Example Example2

Currency

• Is the material time dependent?– Does it matter?

• When was the site last updated?

• Are all the links working?

Example

Objectivity

• Is it an advocacy page?

• Does it defend its case against criticism?

• Are facts accurately and completely cited?

• Do the authors credentials and affiliations show any conflicts of interest?

• Who is paying?

Link1 Link2

Coverage

• Scope of site? – any clear statement of purpose?

• Does it cover its scope adequately?

• Does it give both sides of the argument?

• Is it still under construction?

Bibliographic Support

• Does the author support what they say?

• Are sources respectable?

• Do a Google search on the author!

• What do the authors peers say about his/her work?

Aesthetics and Craftmanship

• What does the design communicate?

• Appropriate balance between text and graphics?

• Are slow links considered?

• Is author generally considerate of users?

• Is the writing of high quality?