Evaluating Sources of Information

1. Evaluating Sources of Information

2. The Internet offers access to many resources but some of them can be of questionable quality. As things stand, the Internet has no system of quality control - all of human life is there - the good, the bad and the ugly: academic journals sit next to comics; presidential speeches next to idle gossip; today's news next to yesterday's news ...

3. You need to become an Internet Detective!

It is often left up to you to distinguish which is which! don't degrade your work by using poor quality information don't get caught out by citing mis-information learn how to recognize high quality information quickly and effectively improve your Internet information skills

4. The Issue of Quality on the Internet

The Internet is full of information but a lot of it is not of the high quality you might hope for. This may be because: anyone can publish anything on the Internet Internet resources can come in many different formats and designs and can change at any moment any part of the Internet can become unavailable at any moment

5. Be Clear About Your Purpose

"A high quality Internet resource is one that satisfies the information needs of the user.� The Internet is an invaluable source of information especially for: ease of access instant access up to the minute information

6. Quality warning!

If you don't know what you are looking for on the Internet you are likely to spend a lot of time drifting aimlessly through cyberspace! What exactly are you looking for? Jot down some keywords or concepts to help clarify your purpose

7. Question Number:1

Question Text: Which of the following tasks can you use the Internet for? a.) Finding the latest information about the Lord of the Rings b.) Getting a copy of the latest Harry Potter book c.) Finding out when Malcolm in the Middle is on TV d.) all of the above

8. Orientate Yourself

The World Wide Web is characterized by the hyperlinks that can take you from one resource to another with the click of a mouse button. A link may take you seamlessly from a resource held on a local server to a resource held on a machine anywhere in the world. Although this has great advantages, it can also mean that you lose track of where the information is located.

9. Internet Orientation

On the World Wide Web it can also be difficult to tell exactly where one site ends and another begins hyperlinks - might take you to the front page of a site but they are more likely to take you to the middle of a site search engines - can index much more than the front page of a resource - so they may take you to a page deep within a resource This can leave you wondering where you are, how you got there and how you get back!

10. Orientation Tips

Explore these following functions of web pages: "home" buttons belonging to the site - by clicking on a "Home" button you will see the front page of the site navigation buttons - ie "back", "forward", "previous" or "next" - following these can give you a feel for where you are site maps - give an overview of the structure of the whole site. They are very useful navigation aids "About this Site" sections - often give verbal descriptions of the scope of the site FAQs - FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. You can often learn about the site by reading these

11. OrientationQuestion Number:1

Why is orientation necessary when you access a resource via a search engine?a.) Because search engines often index many pages within a site, not just the front page b.) Because search engines may drop you right in the middle of a site and leave you wondering where you are c.) Because search engines do not tell you where within a site they are taking you d.) All of the above

12. Dissecting URLs

The basic structure of a URL is: protocol://server-name.domainname/directory/filename Example: http://www.ed.gov/

13. 1)� Protocol

The first part of a URL - before the colon - describes the access method (protocol). Data can be made available on the Internet via a number of different protocols: http:// = a World Wide Web server (WWW) ftp:// = File Transfer Protocol mailto: = email telnet:// = Telnet� gopher:// = gopher

14. 2)� Machine Address

The second part of a URL - after the protocol and // - tells you about the machine that you are accessing. Server names- People can name their machines whatever they like - and if they are using the WWW this will be called the server name. Most organizations use their name within their server name, for example: http://www.harvard.edu/ is the machine address of the Harvard University Web server http://www.nike.com/ is the server name for Nike Web server

15. Cracking Country Codes

You can sometimes get a clue about the country the server is based in from the country code.� For example:  Note however, that a country code will not always be included in a URL. Many American sites for example, will not have the country code (.us) in their URL.

16. Cracking Organizational Codes

You can get clues about the nature of the organization that owns the server from the organization code.� For example: � Note that different countries can have different codes for the same type of organization. For example, a university server may have a .ac code in the UK (ac is short for "academic") but a .edu code in the USA (edu is short for "educational").

17. Warning!

The domain and server names may not always be straightforward clues about the location and source of the information.� People can call their servers any name they wish and it is possible for them to register them with domain names that give false impressions.� For example, it is possible (though perhaps unlikely) that the URL:� http://MacDonalds.com does not point to the site of a hamburger outlet but to� "Old MacDonald's Farm Supplies" !� Domain Names- http://www.luckyregister.com/�

18. Practical Hints and Tips

Deleting parts of the URL to learn more about the site It can be very useful to delete part of the right hand side of the URL to see where the new, shorter URL takes you. By doing this you can get clues as to your location within the site and the structure of the site.

19. For example, look what happens if you delete part of the following URL:  You can delete part of the URL by putting your cursor at the end of the URL in the "location box" and pressing the "back" or "delete" key until you reach the slash (/), then press the "Return" key. Delete from the right, up to the slashes in the URL. This technique can be especially useful for long URLs.

20. Finding the Home Page of a Web site

Home page is the front page of a Web site - the equivalent of the cover of a book - and as such can offer useful information such as the title, author and a summary of what the site is about. Hyperlinks on the WWW often drop you right in the middle of a site as opposed to at the home page. This can make it difficult to work out where you are. It is good practice to look at the home page of a site before you use it, just to ascertain exactly what it is you are looking at. URLs can help with this - the root of a URL will often take you to the home page. It won't always work - but try deleting the file names and directory names on the right of the URL and then hit the return key (make sure your new URL ends with either / or html or htm). This may take you to the home page of the site.

21. Example

The British Monarchy Web site http://www.royal.gov.uk/family/diana.htm is a page deep within the site http://www.royal.gov.uk/ which is the home page This can be especially useful when you are looking at search engine results, which often take you deep within Web sites rather than to the home pages.

22. Tip!

URLs ending in: /welcome.html/index.html/default.html are often home pages but do not always have to be named in this way.

23. Getting Clues From URLs Question Number:1

Which of the following organizations is this URL most likely to have originated from: http://www.green.ox.ac.uk/a.) The Green Party a political party in the UKb.) Oxford Universityc.) Green Academic Publishing Company

24. Question Number:2

Which of the following URLs is least likely to lead to the home page of the Fiji Government?a.) http://www.fiji.gov.fj/sitemap.htmlb.) http://www.fiji.gov.fj/c.) http://www.fiji.gov.fj/index.html

25. Question Number:3

What does the country code uk in a URL tell you about the resource?a.) That it was created in the UKb.) That the information it contains is about the UKc.) That it is held on a machine located in the UK

26. What types of Internet resources are there?

This is not an easy question to answer! New types of resources are appearing all the time. There are different ways of classifying Internet resources into "types". You might consider the following when trying to establish the type of resource you are faced with:

27. 1) What type of format?

You might classify a resource by making a decision about its format. There has been some work on creating standard descriptions for different types of Internet resource.

28. Formats

29. Different resources also use different standard formats:

30. 3) Primary or secondary information?

Another method of classifying the type of resource is on the basis of the contents. A critical question here is whether the information in the resource is primary or secondary (in Internet terms).

31. Primary information

Sites contain primary information if the information is actually held on the server of the site and has been created and produced by the owners of the site. Most of the links are likely to be internal (ie links point to information held on the same server.)

32. Secondary information

Sites contain secondary information if they link to "third party" information located and created elsewhere. Most of the links will be external - and will take you to information located on other servers.

33. Examples

Primary sites full-text documents,images,sound files, multimedia sites Secondary (or referential) sites search engines, Information gateways / virtual libraries, lists of links, bibliographies

34. Establishing the Type of ResourceQuestion Number:1

Which of the following is most likely to contain the most primary information (ie. contain information on its own server as opposed to point you to other servers on the Internet)?a.) A governmental Web site (eg. The Government of Canada Internet Site)b.) A search engine (e.g. AltaVista)c.) A subject gateway (e.g. SOSIG - The Social Science Information Gateway)d.) A Web Directory (e.g. Yahoo)

35. Question Number:2

Question Text: Which of the following files is most likely to be an image? a.) dog.gifb.) cat.pdfc.) hamster.html

36. Weighing Up

When you are faced with an Internet resource and wish to evaluate its quality, remember that: "A high quality Internet resource is one that meets the needs of the user" You need to evaluate the quality of a resource in the light of your own purpose and information needs

37. Criteria for Evaluating Information

This is an introduction to criteria that you can use to evaluate the quality of information. Ultimately the quality of Internet information can be defined as information that 'fit the users� purpose'. 

38. Validity

Validity depends on how well founded, trustworthy and reliable the content of the resource is. Quality warning! on the Internet anyone can publish anything unlike in the world of print, authors do not always have their information checked by a third party such as an editor, publisher or reviewer things may not always be what they seem - people can assume personas, lie or make false claims

39. Detecting Validity

Questions to ask: does the resource appear to be honest and genuine? has the information already been filtered by a third party? is the resource available in another format? (eg a book or CD-ROM) is the information well researched? is any bias made clear and of an acceptable level? Clues to look for: references and bibliographies a statement of the source of the information a statement of the aims and objectives of the site mention of any quality checks the information has passed through a URL which supports claims in the content

40. ValidityQuestion Number:1

Which of the following would be the best indicator of validity?a.) The site is held on a university server.b.) The site has been given a 5 star rating by an Internet review service.c.) The information has been filtered by a third party (peer reviewer or publisher).

41. Question Number:2

Which is a guaranteed indicator that an organizational site is valid?a.) The URL contains the organization's nameb.) The site contains a lot of information about the organizationc.) The email address on the site contains the organization's named.) None of the above

42. Accuracy

Closely related to validity, the accuracy of a resource will depend on how correct all the information actually is. Quality warning! The lack of information filters on the Internet, such as proof readers, editors and publishers means that mistakes are more prevalent than in print. This means there can be both innocent error and outright deception. 

43. Detecting Accuracy

Questions to ask: has the information been checked by a third party (eg publisher, editor or peer reviewer)? where doubt about accuracy exists can the information content be cross-checked with a reliable source? Clues to look for: typographical errors spelling mistakes and bad grammar bibliographies and references the credentials of the information provider

44. AccuracyQuestion Number:1

Accuracy of information can be improved if it is checked by an independent third party before it is published. Out of the following list, which is NOT an independent third party when it comes to checking the accuracy of the information?a.) Authorb.) Proof-readerc.) Editor

45. Authority and Reputation of the Source

The authority and reputation of the source of the information will depend on the expertise, reputation and status of the source. Quality warning! on the Internet the source of the information may not always be made explicit information may not always be correctly attributed anyone can publish anything on the Internet, so compared with a bookstore or a library you will find lots more information based on personal opinion rather than fact

46. Detecting the Authority and Reputation of the Source

Questions to ask: who is the author? who has published it on the Internet? how reputable are the author and publisher? how reputable is the origin of any data or information? can cross checks be made to verify that the author and publishers stated are genuine? Clues to look for: author and publisher details details of the origin of any data or information contact details such as email and postal addresses for the author and publisher email addresses which support claims of authorship

47. Coverage and Comprehensiveness

The depth and breadth of the information. Quality warning! Many Internet resources are not equivalent to what you would find in a library or bookshop. Broken into screen-sized chunks, they may not cover a subject in the same depth as a book. Some resources may appear or claim to be comprehensive information resources, but may disappoint in that they are not yet complete, may be full of broken links or simply lack in-depth coverage of the subject matter. 

48. Detecting Coverage and Comprehensiveness

Questions to ask: does the information go into sufficient depth? does the resource cover the subject matter adequately? are there any obvious gaps in the information? Clues to look for: a contents page an index a site map bibliographies and references

49. Coverage and ComprehensivenessQuestion Number:1

Which of the following would you expect to have deeper coverage of information? a.) A print version of a newspaperb.) An online version of a newspaper

50. A Summary of Critically Evaluating Information

Ask yourself: WHO? WHAT? WHEN? WHERE? WHY?

51. Who ?

Who wrote the pages and are they an expert? Is a biography of the author included? How can you find out more about the author?

52. What ?

What does the author say is the purpose of the site? What else might the author have in mind for the site? What makes the site easy to use?

53. When ?

When was the site created? When was the site last updated?

54. Where ?

Where does the information come from? Where can I look to find out more about the producer/sponsor?

55. Why ?

Why is this information useful for my purpose? Why should I use this information? Why is this page better than another?

56. Test Your Critical Evaluation Skills

Does this page contain accurate information? http://ddescy.lme.mnsu.edu/descy/webcred/webcred/dhmo.html Is the research presented real? http://www.improb.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html To find information about George Bush which site would you use: http://www.georgewbush.com http://www.gwbush.com Is the information on this site real? http://lme.mankato.msus.edu/mankato/mankato.html

57. More Resources

http://www.alltheweb.com/help/faqs/url_investigator http://www.netskills.ac.uk/TonicNG/cgi/sesame?detective http://www.vuw.ac.nz/staff/alastair_smith/evaln/evaln.htm http://www.capemaytech.net/ettc/links/cmcthsvalidatewebsites.htm http://kathyschrock.net/abceval/