Evaluating Quality on the World Wide Web

Writing as Critical Thinking/ Matt Davis

Authority of Author: Who is Behind it?

Use the URL for the web site to help determine the author/sponsor of the site.

      U. S. domains.
                   .edu - institution of higher education
                   .gov - federal government
                   .mil - U.S. military
                   .org - non-profit organization
                   .net - network
                   .com - commercial - for profit/business
       State government domains include a 2-letter state code
                  Missouri Dept. of Economic Development =
                           http://www.ecodev.state.mo.us

New domains have recently been added: http://www.icann.org/tlds/

International agencies use .int
World Health Orgnization = http://www.who.int/

Foreign domains include a 2-letter country code
British Broadcasting Co. = http://www.bbc.co.uk

Who wrote the page?
http://www.holocaust-history.org/
http://ddickerson.igc.org/holocaust.html
Credentials listed? Use other sources to find information

Content, Scope: What's There

Is the information accurate?
Is it second hand information?
Is the source of the information documented?
How old is the information?

http://www.bioethics.gov/cloningreport/fullreport.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/tobacco/overview.htm

Purpose, Viewpoint: Why does it exist?

What is the page's intent?
Who sponsors the page?
Is the page biased? Is the bias openly stated?
Is the page a satire or parody?

         http://www.aish.com/holocaust/
        http://www.cloninginformation.org
        http://www.humancloning.org/

Reputation: where is the web site cited?

Was it referred by a reputable source?
Who links to the page? Check by using Google link:url

link:http://www.puaf.umd.edu/IPPP/Fall97Report/cloning.htm

Advanced Web Searching: Google All the Web

PUBLIC WEB~PRIVATE WEB~SURFACE WEB~ INVISIBLE WEB

The Web is divided into 3 parts (according to OCLC)

                21 % Private -- Content subject to explicit access restrictions
                        Requires Internet Protocol filters or password authentication
                            (For example: FirstSearch, LexisNexis)

38% Provisional -- Content in unfinished or transitory state
(For example: Server default pages, Site under construction notices)

41% Public -- Content free to the public

When you use a search engine, you generally are searching only about 15% of these public sites--the surface web-- about 1 billion individual documents. The rest are considered invisible or deep web--about 500 billion individual documents.

Search the Invisible Web:

Pickler Library's General Reference page under Web Links By Subject collects many free databases for finding information on the "invisible" Web.

Other sources:

The Invisible Web Directory (http://www.invisible-web.net)
Intelliseek's invisibleweb.com (http://www.invisibleweb.com/
Direct Search (http://www.freepint.com/gary/direct.htm)

Complete Web Page Evaluation Worksheet--List of Web Sites

Janet Romine
Reference & Interlibrary Loan
Pickler Memorial Library
Truman State University
(660) 785-7418
jiromine@truman.edu