Finding information can be difficult, but even if you find contebnt on your topic, the effectiveness of your work will rest largely on the value (validity and reliability) of your content!
“In an attempt to reduce information to easily manageable
segments, most people have become dependent on others for their
information. Information prepackaging in schools and through broadcast
and print news media, in fact, encourages people to accept the opinions
of others without much thought.”
Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report
It is important to understand what information you are looking for when evaluating web sites. There are many techniques for doing this. Most of these center on the creator, content, and currency of the site. Because they are no gatekeepers for online information like there is for traditionally published material, we must use web site evaluation techniques reliability and validity of the information on the site.
The first things to look at is the domain a site is registered under, The domain is the last part of the main site URL, like .com., .org, and .net. There are dozens of domain types, each one assigned for a particular use, and some are better than others for research
In general, the best information for research on the web are .gov and .edu sites. These sites are published by the government and educational institutions that are generally held accountable for the content they post.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers provides a list of the types of domains, where they come from, and what they are (supposed) to be used for.
Organizational sites (.org) and Commercial (.com) sites are (usually) the least reliable in terms of research information.
The least useful in terms of research is most often the .com site, which is designed to sell things. So they generally have content that works towards persuading you to do just that. This is not always the case, for example you can find much useful information about books from Amazon.com.
Sites created by organizations can be useful, but often contain bias, for instance the PETA web site is pro-animal rights, and the Heritage Foundation site is a highly conservative web site sponsored by many corporations and right wing groups. A way you can tell about an organization is by looking at the "About Us" section of the site. Another way is do web search on the topics you find on the site and compare the content.
Finally, you can use a web information site like Alexa.com. Alexa is a site that shows you where web traffic comes from, gives information and reviews about sites, and lists the top sites in popular topics
The following are some of the questions that a web site evaluation needs to answer:
Evaluating Web Content
There are a number of methods for evaluating web page content. One popular method it the CRAAP test developed at Cal State Chico. The following five areas are key to determining the value of a website. If the web site you are viewing meets these criteria, it is probably worth using!
Here is a table that summarizes the ideas.
| Evaluation of Web Documents Using the CRAAP Test |
|---|
1. Currency
|
2. Relevance
|
3. Authority
|
4. Accuracy
|
5. Purpose
|
