Five points to consider when looking at a web page:
- Accuracy of Web Resources
- Almost anyone can publish on the Web
- Most Web resources not verified by editors and/or fact checkers
- Web standards to ensure accuracy have yet to be fully developed
- Authority of Web Resources
- Often difficult to determine authorship of Web sources
- If author's name is listed, his/her qualifications frequently absent
- Publisher responsibility often not indicated
- Objectivity of Web Resources
- Goals/aims of persons or groups presenting material often not clearly stated
- Web often functions as a virtual soapbox
- Currency of Web Resources
- Dates not always included on Web pages
- If included, a date may have various meanings:
- Date information first written
- Date information placed on Web
- Date information last revised
- Coverage of Web Resources
- Web coverage may differ from print coverage
- Often hard to determine extent of Web coverage
- Thinking Critically about WWW resources
- Evaluating Web Resources: an extremely useful collection of materials from Widener University.
- "Testing the Surf: Criteria for Evaluating Internet Information Resources", an article by Alistair G. Smith in the PACS Review
- Evaluating Web Sites for Educational Uses: Bibliography and Checklist, from the Institute for Academic Technology. Includes a checklist of questions for evaluating websites.
