CREDIBLE WEBSITESLibrary Skills 2011

DATABASES VS. WEBSITES

Experts are the writers Anyone can be the writer

Aimed at students and researchers

Aimed at the general public

Structure is consistent Structure varies

Paid with passwords Free on the web

Searched internally Searched with search engines

Quality information because it is checked for accuracy

Get information more quickly but quality may be inferior

Articles tend to be more detailed

Length, amount of detail will vary

DATABASES VS. WEBSITES

The best tool to use for research depends on your topic.

It is often helpful to use both databases and websites to find a wide variety of information.

However, when using websites, the student/researcher must be carefully to check that the website is credible.

WHICH ONE IS CREDIBLE?

20th Century History

World War I Document Archive

Why? What characteristics are missing from the less credible website? Write 3-4 characteristics on the back of your Website Evaluation Notes.

WHAT FEATURES SHOULD I LOOK FOR?

author sources

URL/domain name look and feel

type of site

age

purpose bias

UNDERSTANDING THE FEATURES OF A CREDIBLE WEBSITE

4 minutes: Work with a partner and discuss each of the 8 factors (30 seconds per factor). Why and how are these important?

Click through the PPT for assistance if needed.

Take notes as you discuss the factors with your partner.

Be prepared to discuss your results with the class.

AUTHOR Biographies of Military and Political Leaders of World War I BBC—History: World War I

Why should a credible website have an author? Can the author be an institution, organization, or company? What should one do once the author’s/organization’s name is located? What should you do if no author/organization can be found?

SOURCES Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson: Nobel Prize

What are sources and why are they important? What should one look for when analyzing the sources used to create a website? Wikipedia is not a credible source but it does have one benefit. It will list sources that can lead to further information. As

always, you should evaluate these sources carefully to determine if they are credible. Woodrow Wilson--Wikipedia

What are some common URL (uniform resource locator) extensions?

What can these extensions tell the researcher?

Are certain extensions naturally more reliable than others?

URL/DOMAIN NAME

.com

.org

.net

.edu

.gov

.biz

LOOK AND FEEL World War I—Spartacus Educational League of Nations Photo Archive

Why are look and feel important? What can they immediately tell the researcher?

TYPE OF SITE

What types of websites exist?

Which would contain the most reliable information for research? Why?

Informational sitesGovernment sitesEducational sitesWikisBlogsSocial networking sitesDiscussion boards/forumsGaming sites

and more…

PURPOSE

What are some purposes that websites have? How can one determine the purpose of a

site? Why would this information be useful to the

researcher?

AGE World War I: Fordham University History of War Online

Where should the researcher look to determine the age of a site? Is it important for all links to be current as well? Why is correct grammar and spelling important? What should be done if the information on a site is not current? Are there exceptions to this rule? When?

BIAS

What is bias? Where is bias present? How can the researcher determine if a

website has biased information?

Should biased information ever be used in scholarly research?

•Look at the advertisements•Check the credentials of the author/organization•Look for blatant lies and misrepresentation of facts

WORKS CITED

Your works cited page should be in correct MLA format.

When using the databases (Gale, TAL, World Book, Britannica, use the citation tools to find the correct citations).

See the MTSU Writing Lab for more information about how to create your works cited page.

WORKS CITED: WEB SITES

Author’s name. Name of Web site. Name of institution or organization associated with the site. Date of posting/revision. Publication medium. Date of access.

Irvine, Martin, and Deborah Everhart. The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies. Georgetown University. 2002. Web. 21 June 2004.

WORKS CITED: ARTICLE ON A WEB SITE

Author’s name. “Title of Article.” Name of Web site. Name of institution or organization associated with the site. Date of posting/revision. Publication Medium. Date of access.

Stanley, Sally. “Sabotaging a Child’s Education: How Parents Undermine Teachers.” Teacher-Parent Connections. Disney Learning. 2003. Web. 22 Apr. 2003.

WORKS CITED: ONLINE ARTICLE WITH NO OBVIOUS AUTHOR

“Title of Article.” Name of Web site. Name of institution or publication. Date of posting/revision. Publication medium. Date of access.

“Reebok International Ltd.” Hoover’s Online. Hoover’s Inc. 2002. Web. 19 June 2002.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST… Remember that it is illegal to steal someone else’s

work. That means you cannot copy word for word from a website and paste it into your brochure!!!!

Also, you cannot use copyrighted images without permission. This is also illegal. Please use TEL, Britannica or Worldbook online to find images. Tips to help: Select the most relevant info from several webpages

and summarize it in your own words. Don’t copy a passage and use a thesaurus to change a

word here and there (it’s still illegal). Don’t copy and paste directly from the page into your

project. Give credit to your source by using MLA or writing

down the website URL and author/creator of the information

WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

Follow the link to complete a short survey on what you learned from this lesson on credible websites.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Z36C6ML

TOOLS TO HELP YOU

This is a great website evaluation wizard…it takes you right through the process: http://21cif.com/tools/evaluate/

Evaluation checklist worksheet