Annotated Bibliography

EVALUATING WEB SOURCES

AUTHORITY

· Who is responsible for the contents of the page?

· If the site is sponsored by an organization, is this information prominently and clearly displayed?

· Is there a way of verifying the legitimacy of the page's sponsor? Is there a phone number or postal address to contact for more information? (Simply an email address is not enough.)

· Is it clear who wrote the material and are the author's qualifications for writing on this topic clearly stated?

ACCURACY

· Are the sources for any factual information clearly listed so they can be verified in another source?

· If data are included, is the source of the data indicated?

· Is the information free of grammatical, spelling, and typographical errors? (These kinds of errors not only indicate a lack of quality control, but also can actually produce inaccuracies in information.)

· Is it clear who has ultimate responsibility for the accuracy of the content of the material?

· Does the data/information make sense?

 AUDIENCE

· What is the purpose of the site?

· Is the information intended for consumers, employees, investors, students, researchers, specialists, or experts?

OBJECTIVITY

·  Does the page appear to be marketing services or products?

· Are any biases or assumptions noted?

· Is the author or sponsor of the page advocating particular viewpoints or causes?

· Is the information free of advertising? If not, are the advertisements clearly differentiated from the informational content?

CURRENCY

· Are there dates on the page to indicate when the page was last revised?

· Is the page updated on a regular basis?

· Are the links updated on a regular basis?

· If material is presented in graphs and/or charts, is it clearly stated when the data was gathered?

COVERAGE

· Is there an indication that the page has been completed, and is not still under construction?

· If there is a print equivalent to the web page, is there a clear indication of whether the entire work is available on the web or only parts of it?

· If the material is from a work which is out of copyright (as is often the case with a dictionary or thesaurus) has there been an effort to update the material to make it more current?

QUALITY OF THE PAGE

· Do the links work?

· Is the page well organized and easy to navigate?

Evaluation of Information Sources: Critical Questions

This checklist was compiled  from "Evaluating Web Resources" from David and Lorraine Cheng Library, William Patterson University.