Evaluating Information on World Wide Web

Additional Resources

  • Evaluating Quality on the Net, by Hope N. Tillman, Director of Libraries, Babson College. This page was one of the first on the Web to address these issue, but it has not been updated since 2003.
  • From UC Berkeley are a couple good pages, Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask and a page that tackles the broader issue of Critical Evaluation of Resources.
  • The Nizor Project includes a Fallacy Tutorial that was created by Michael C. Labossiere. It doesn't not specifically address the Web, but is more fundamental in its approach.
  • John L. Cotton and Randall J. Scalise, professors of physics at SMU have put together The Baloney Detection Collection, compiled from lists and ideas first presented by Carl Sagan, Michael Shermer, and Robert L.Park. None are specifically related to Web evaluation, however.
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, which is subtitled, "Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources," approaches the topic with examples and evaluation activities.
  • Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators includes a section on Critical Evaluation Information that is aimed at K-12 teachers.
  • The Virtual Chase from Genie Tyburski was designed as a guide to legal professionals, but it is useful to researchers in many fields who are using the Internet.
  • There are several information literacy tutorials available online, including EMPOWER, from Wichita State University Libraries; the Internet Detective from a team from several UK universities; IRIS, from the library at Clark College in Washington State; and LILI, from South Australia.
  • For a site that debunks, challenges, or addresses some hoaxes, questionable ideas, and urban legends, I can suggest the snopes.com, although I invite you to test it yourself given the criteria you have now been introduced to.

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Last modified: August 29, 2009