Questioning the Quality of Internet Information Cory Laverty, Education Library

Questioning the Quality of Internet Information Cory Laverty, Education Library Become an Internet Detective Queen’s University

The Internet reflects the real world – the good, the bad,and the ugly!It’s left up to you to decide which is which! Queen’s University

Quality Warning!On the Internet anyone can publish anything- academic journals sit next to comics- presidential speeches next to idle gossip Queen’s University

Quality Warning!Internet resources are volatile- here today, gone tomorrow- useful one day, useless the next Queen’s University

Quality Warning!Internet resources are not always user-friendly- poor design can prohibit access- usability will vary Queen’s University

Be careful! • Don’t degrade your work by using poor • quality information • Don’t get caught citing incorrect information • Learn to filter results to sort the • good from the bad Queen’s University

Think like a Detective! • Look for clues • Ask questions • Consider motives • Trust no one! Queen’s University

Play the Internet Detective Game • Two silent teams • Fold your paper • Record points • Win prizes Queen’s University

Question 1 For which of the following tasks should you not rely on the Internet? 1. Finding the latest stock prices. 2. Getting a review of the latest Booker prize novel. 3. Conducting a literature search for an essay. 4. All of the above. Queen’s University

Question 2 Why is orientation at a site necessary when you access a resource via a search engine? Because search engines … 1. Often index pages within a site, not just the front page. 2. May drop you in the middle of a site. 3. Do not tell you where within a site they are taking you. 4. All of the above. Queen’s University

Question 3 Which of the following organizations is this URL most likely to have originated from? http://www.green.ox.ac.uk 1. The Green Party in the U.K. 2. Oxford University 3. Green Academic Publishing Queen’s University

Question 4 Which of the following contains the most primary information on its own server: 1. Government of Canada website 2. Google 3. Yahoo 4. All have about same amount of primary information. Queen’s University

Question 5 Which of the following would be the best indicator of validity of a website? 1. The site is held on a university server. 2. The site has a five-star rating by a review service. 3. The information has been filtered by a third party (e.g. peer review or publisher) 4. All of the above. Queen’s University

Question 6 Which is a guaranteed indicator that an organizational site is valid? 1. The URL contains the organization’s name. 2. The site focuses on the organization. 3. The email address contains the organization’s name. 4. None of the above. Queen’s University

Question 7 Which of the following features would convince you that a site was the “Official Homepage” for Paul Martin? 1. An official “Office of the Prime Minister” logo. 2. The postal address for Paul Martin in Ottawa. 3. A description of the Canadian Government. 4. None of the above. Queen’s University

Question 8 • Most books and journals you see in the library • are now available electronically: • Yes. • No. Queen’s University

Question 9 Which of the following would you expect to have more in-depth coverage? 1. A print version of a newspaper. 2. An online version of a newspaper. Queen’s University

Question 10 Google searches the “surface” Web but not the deep or invisible Web. How big is the “invisible” Web? 1. The invisible web is too small to worry about. 2. The invisible web is twice as large as the surface web. 3. The invisible web is 100 times larger than the surface web. 4. The invisible web is 500 times larger than the surface web. Queen’s University

Apply Your Knowledge State the criteria you would use to evaluate these websites and explain what you would look for. I will ask each group for one item at a time. Each criterion is awarded 2 points for your team. Bonus point for each website: Would you use it as a reference? Queen’s University

http://www.dhmo.org/ Queen’s University

Site of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne http://www.geocities.com/ibenglish_chs/firstpage.html Queen’s University

Site of The Dead Sociologists’ Society http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/DEADSOC.HTML Queen’s University

And the prizes … … go to everyone! Queen’s University

Questioning the Quality of Internet Information Cory Laverty, Education Library