English 1213 Dr. Maxson Session 2 Internet and Evaluation

Periodicals MAGAZINES MAGAZINES  Popular Info  Audience: General Public Casual Reader  Purpose: Hobby Pleasure Curiosity JOURNALS JOURNALS  Scholarly Info  Audience: Researcher Professional Who Needs to Stay Up-to-Date  Purpose: Goal-Driven  Research Paper  Certification, Tenure  Job Requirement

Class Activity What’s the Difference?

Difference Between Scholarly and Popular Periodicals POPULAR MAGAZINES USUALLY SOMEWHAT SLICK AND ATTRACTIVE IN APPEARANCE RARELY CITE SOURCES. INFO. IS USUALLY SECONDARY, REPORTED FROM SOURCE ARTICLES SHORT, WRITTEN IN SIMPLE LANGUAGE AND FOR A MINIMAL EDUCATION LEVEL USUALLY LOT OF ADVERTISING AND PICTURES PAGINATION RESTARTS IN EVERY ISSUE SCHOLARLY JOURNALS HAVE A SOBER, SERIOUS LOOK ALWAYS CITE THEIR SOURCES IN FOOTNOTES/BIBLIOGRAPHIES ARTICLES WRITTEN BY A SCHOLAR OR RESEARCHER “HORSE’S MOUTH” PEER-REVIEWED BY SCHOLARS LANGUAGE OF JOURNAL ASSUMES SOME SCHOLARLY BACKGROUND ON THE PART OF READER ADVERTISING IS SPECIALIZED TO THAT DISCIPLINE PAGINATION IS CUMULATIVE

Moving Towards Evaluation Scholarly sources are concerned with academic study, especially research for individuals such as, students, teachers, professors, or any other professional who need current information to stay informed of changes to their profession or area of expertise. Many scholarly journals are peer reviewed or refereed, that is, these articles have been subjected to a rigorous approval and editing process by other scholars in that discipline. This process doesn’t apply to popular magazines.

The Internet is… a major presence in our daily lives constantly growing helping make an enormous amount of information available

Web Searching is easy because….. Speed Choice Availability 24/7 Always get an answer

Web searching is difficult because… Organization Quality control Reliability

Web vs. Library Databases Web  Good for current events  Statistical Information  Pop Culture  Opinion  Information about Organizations & Groups Library Databases  Research Based Books & Articles  Full-text Resources  Authoritative & Peer- reviewed Materials  Information about People & Cultures  Easier to Search AND, OR, NOT Specific Subjects

Evaluation

Remember to Evaluate!!! Authority  Who created it? Who is responsible?  What credentials do they hold? What makes them qualified to discuss the topic? Accuracy  Can the information be verified?  Check the facts! Objectivity  How is the information being presented?  Is it objective or biased? What’s the point of view? Currency (important based on subject)  When was it published?  When was it last updated?

Step 1: Authority Web Pages  Credentials/Qualifications/Reputation  Who is responsible for content? Webmaster? Web team? Organization? Institution? Company?

Domain Names Which one is right?     Whois.net 

Domain Names  Domain Names: ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has overall responsibility for managing the Domain Name System.ICANN

Step 2: AccuracyAccuracy Web Pages  Can the information be verified? Links to credible sites Copyright Works Cited Fact check with a printed source

Step 3: Objectivity Web Pages  Biased or Objective? Opinion/Fan sites Sponsoring Organization Agendas Political Propaganda Web hosting

Step 4: CurrencyCurrency Web Pages  When was it created and last updated? Well maintained web sites have an indication when it was last updated or modified Accessibility  Dead links Stability  Changes URLs frequently

Exercise: Evaluation Handout

Google Larry Page & Sergey Brin/ Grad Students 1998 Mission: "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.“ 2007: 23 Billion dollar corporation

Google: A Tool like any other Site Specific Command What it does: searches only specific websites What to type: Blackwater Security site:com What you’ll get: references to Blackwater Security on dot com websites

Google Scholar Google Scholar provides a simple way to search for scholarly literature. Search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.

Google Scholar Works best for citations Restrictions to Content  Fee-based  Often your Library already owns material  We’re working on improving access

Wikipedia Wiki: A Web application that allows users to add content to a collaborative hypertext Web resource (coauthoring), as in an Internet forum, and permits others to edit that content (open editing).

Wikipedia Jimmy Wales January 15, 2001 No Original Research NPOV (Neutral point of view) No owners, multiple anonymous authors Anyone with Internet access can create or edit an entry…Anyone

Wikipedia Contributors: male, English speaking, denizens of the Internet. Problem is not that it disregards the facts, but that it elevates them above all else. Most of the content is discussion/history of edits & not the entries themselves. Rosenzweig, Roy. “Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past.” The Journal of American History 93.1 (2006):

Wikipedia Participation maps popular, not academic concerns It is a working community…but is it a good historical resource? Lack of Critical Analysis Problematic as a sole source of information Like all encyclopedias…ok to start, terrible place to stop. Benefits are to its active participants, not its readers.

The Machine is Us/ing Us

Writing Your Paper Writing Center  Located in the basement of the library  Call for appointment # MLA Style  Style Sheets  MLA Handbook at Reference & Circulation Desk 

Questions? Contact me: Frederic Murray, M.L.I.S