How do you know if a website is good enough to cite? Get out a sheet of paper Title it Citing Websites Jot down your thoughts in response to the question below: **cite = use in research How do you know if a website is good enough to cite? Walk about and take note of students’ responses as a pre-assessment

Tutorial Watch the tutorial video and answer the following questions: What is an authoritative site? What clues indicate that a website is authoritative? What clues indicate that a website is not authoritative? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_qR5lpnXBE Show video tutorial

Let’s make it easy to remember: The 5 W’s Who What When Where Why Have students watch robot tutorial and add details under each W http://lib.colostate.edu/tutorials/webeval.html

Who? credentials? education? experience? affiliation? Does the author’s experience really qualify him or her as an expert? Does he or she offer first-hand credibility? (For instance, a Vietnam veteran or a witness to Woodstock?) Who actually published this page? Is this a personal page or is it an endorsed part of a site belonging to a major institution? (Clues pointing to a personal page: ~ tilde, %, users, members)

But what if I can’t find any author information?

Look for credibility clues! Words and phrases to look for: About us Who Am I FAQs Company Information Our Staff This info is usually found on the HOME page Clues often appear on the top or bottom of a page, or in menu bars and frames. These sections often contain authorship clues! 6

No HOME page link? Truncate the URL Delete characters in the address line up to the next slash mark to see if a main page offers more information about who is responsible for publishing the page you are interested in. Go from: http://www.statecollege.edu/history/middleages/chaucer/smith.htm http://www.statecollege.edu/history/middleages/chaucer http://www.statecollege.edu/history/middleages http://www.statecollege.edu/history http://www.statecollege.edu

More credibility clues (What do others think?) Do a link check In Google or AltaVista type link:siteaddress Your results will show which other sites have chosen to link to this page. If several respectable institutions have linked to a site, that provides a clue about the site’s credibility. Do a link check here for a reliable site. Have your students examine and evaluate the URLs of the sites that linked to the site in question. 8

Still more credibility clues If you have an author’s name but no further information about credentials, Search the name in quotation marks in a search engine or online database On the Web, include words like profile, resume, or C.V. (curriculum vitae—an academic resume) to narrow your name search E-mail the author (If you have no information other than an e-mail link, write a polite e-mail asking for more information.)

What? Can facts, statistics, or other information be verified through other sources? Based on your knowledge, does the information seem accurate? Is the information inconsistent with information you learned from other sources? Is the information second hand? Has it been altered? Do there appear to be errors on the page (spelling, grammar, facts)?

When? When was this information created? When was it last revised? Are these dates meaningful in terms of your information needs? Has the author of the page stopped maintaining it? (Be suspicious of undated material.)

Where? Did the author bother to document his or her sources? Were those references reliable and scholarly? Are those sources real? Have you or your librarian heard of or been able to verify them?

URLs as clues to content .com=commercial sites (vary in their credibility) .gov=U.S. government site .org=organization, often non-profit. *Some have strong bias and agendas .edu=school or university site *is it K–12? by a student or a teacher? .ac=educational institution (like .edu) .mil=U.S. military site ~=personal site

What do their URLs reveal about these sites? http://personal.statecollege.edu/~ejv114/ http://www.fi.edu/wright/index.html http://www.house.gov/house/Legproc.html http://aolmembers.com/joyciev328/civalwarsong These are not working URLS! Use them as examples for analysis only. 14

Recognizing bias is important. Why? Does the source present a particular view or bias? Is the page selling a product? Was the information found in a paid placement or sponsored result from the search engine? Information is seldom neutral. Recognizing bias is important.

Practice Part 1 1. Go to the following web address and complete the online tutorial. Can you sort the junk from the treasure? http://library.albany.edu/usered/webeval/ *Do not complete Course Credit Acknowledgment Page Write down how many you got right. Tell me 1 thing you learned by doing this

Practice Part 2 2. Practice your skills with the following quiz: http://liblearn.osu.edu/tutor/les1/sitepurpose_quiz.html What was your score? Tell me 1 thing you learned by doing this.

Practice Part 3 3. http://www.snopes.com/pregnant/medina.asp Directions: For each of the following sites, access the site and answer these questions. Who wrote it? (name & credentials) What is this? Where did the author get his/her info? When was it created & updated? Why did the author write it? Is it biased? Suitable to cite? EXPLAIN! 3. http://www.snopes.com/pregnant/medina.asp 4. www.dhmo.org 5. www.dogbreedinfo.com