FINDING AND EVALUATING WEBSITES
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING A WEBSITE
AuthorityCurrencyAccuracyObjectivityContent
AUTHORITY
Is the author stated? Does he/she have the necessary
education or experience on the subject?
Is the page part of an individual's site or part of an organization's site?
Who is the sponsor? How reputable is the sponsor?
Is contact information available for the author or the sponsor?
ACCURACY
Is the site free of obvious errors?
Are the facts valid compared to other reliable sources?
Does the author give proper attribution to borrowed information or knowledge?
OBJECTIVITY
Does the author have a bias, taking a position on an issue, or giving only one side of the story?
Is the site designed to promote or sell a service or product?
What's the purpose of the site? To what audience is the author writing?
CURRENCY
Does the web page show when it was last updated?
Is the information up-to-date?
How current are the links? Have some expired or moved?
CONTENT
Does the site offer something unique that is not found elsewhere?
Is the subject well-researched and covered comprehensively?
Is the information well organized?
We know our students are using it but we can show them how to be better users of it.
Advanced Google searching techniques
ALTERNATIVES TO GOOGLE
There are many search engines that we can show our students and even require that they use for an assignment
GOOGLE SCHOLAR
A scholarly version of Google, finds primarily journal literature as well as Theses/dissertationsBooks from scholarly publishers
Preprint databases
GOOGLE BOOKS
3 categories of books In print and in copyright-preview &
purchase options (links to Amazon, Borders, etc)
Out of print but in copyright- available online for preview and purchase.
Out of copyright-can read, download and print
DIRECTORIES/INDICES
Yahoo directory
Librarian’s Index to the Internet
DMOZ
“CLUSTERING” SEARCH ENGINES
KartOO Quintura
METASEARCH ENGINES
Zuula
Dogpile
SUBJECT SPECIFIC SEARCH ENGINES
Scirus-scienceHealthline-health information
Agriscape-agricultureMathSearch-math
DOMAIN SPECIFIC SEARCH ENGINES
Searchedu.com
Google US Government Search
CONTENT SPECIFIC SEARCH ENGINES
ClipBlast & Blinkx-for video
MuviBee-music & music videos
WANT MORE?
Try http://www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html
A search engine directory/guide
Find and explore a search engine that interests you
Think about an assignment that incorporates the use of this search engine & meets one or more of the IL standards.
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