THE PATRICK & BEATRICE HAGGERTY LIBRARY


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Internet Resources, Search Engines
Evaluating Web Sites


EVALUATING WEB SOURCES


For academic research on the Web, you will want to evaluate
a website before considering it to be authoritative or accurate,
or before using it in a research paper.


Questions to Ask:

  • What is the purpose of the site?
    For whom is the site intended?
    Is the site intended for opinion or commentary?
    Does the writing style and layout serve this audience?
    What is the coverage of this site?
    Is the content controversial?
    Is the content well written and authoritative?
    Does the site have links to similar web pages?

  • Who authored this site and what are his/her credentials?
    What are the credentials of the author?
    Is a biographical / professional description of the author available?

  • Is this site sponsored by an organization, and what is its reputation?

  • What were the criteria for including material on this site?

  • Is this site a useful supplement to your curriculum?
    Does it meet course objectives?


  • Is there documentation for the information presented?
    Can you verify the information elsewhere?
    Are reviews for this site readily available?

  • Who maintains the site?
    Is there contact information?


  • Is the material current?
    When was the site last updated?
    Is there a date on the page?


  • Are there links to other sites from this one on the same topic?

  • Is the site easy to navigate?
    Would you like to return to this site?
    Are there "dead" or misdirected links on the page?
    Are there "Help" files or FAQs?

  • Can pages from this site be printed?


These Sites Will Assist You In The Evaluation

Critical Thinking and the Internet from the Wilfrid Laurier University Library
Evaluating Websites: Tools & Criteria from Cornell University Library
T is for Thinking: Critical thinking about what you see on the Web
Critical Thinking in on Online World from the University of California-Santa Barbara


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TEXT ARCHIVES & DIGITAL LIBRARIES

 

Digital Book Index
Links to over 88,000 titles from 1,800 commercial and non-commercial publishers, universities and private sites; about 50,000 of these books and texts are free

Directory of Electronic Text Centers
A list of electronic text centers in the United States; from Rutgers University

Electronic Text Center Collections
Holdings include approximately 70,000 on- and off-line humanities texts in thirteen languages, with more than 350,000 related images (book illustrations, covers, manuscripts, newspaper pages, page images of Special Collections books, museum objects, etc.); from the University of Virginia Library

Ingenta
The most comprehensive collection of academic and professional publications available for online, fax and Ariel delivery; search 22,037,222 articles, chapters, reports and more from 30,675 publications

Internet Classics Archive
Select from a list of 441 works of classical literature by 59 different authors, including user-driven commentary and "reader's choice" Web sites; mainly Greco-Roman works some Chinese and Persian, in English translation

Internet Public Library Serials
Magazines, journals, E-zines; from the University of Michigan

New Jour Electronic Journals and Newsletters
Archive list for new journals and newsletters available on the Internet

Online Books Page
Lists over 20,000 free books on the Web

Perseus Digital Library
Perseus is an evolving digital library; its primary goal is to bring a wide range of source materials to as large an audience as possible; accessibility to the sources for the study of the humanities will strengthen the quality of questions and lead to new avenues of research; from Tufts University

Poetry Archives
An educational resource to aid students, educators, and the curious; a collection of thousands of classical poems to help you recall fond memories or to help create new ones; the database is searchable by first-line, author and poem title by key words using the search feature located on the top right corner of each page

Project Bartleby Archive
An Internet publisher of literature, references and verse providing students, researchers and the intellectually curious with unlimited access to books and information on the Web, free of charge

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography
This bibliography presents selected English-language articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet; most sources have been published between 1990 and the present; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 1990 are also included; where possible, links are provided to sources that are freely available on the Internet

Scholarly Journals Distributed Via the World Wide Web
This directory provides links to established Web-based scholarly journals that offer access to English language article files without requiring user registration or fees; from the University of Houston Libraries

Scholarly Societies Projects
Most scholarly societies websites have tables of contents for their serials; access to these is generally free of charge to the public; some scholarly societies websites also maintain a search engine to the contents of these serials; in addition, it is increasingly common for scholarly societies to publish the full text of their serial publications online; these archives are generally accessible from the tables of contents and search engines at their websites; access to the full-text is, however, generally restricted to individuals and institutions that have a subscription to the serial in question; a growing number of scholarly societies in the sciences have adopted a policy of free access to the full-text of all but the current 12 months of their serial publications; sponsored by the University of Waterloo Library

Serials in Cyberspace
Selected sites with electronic journal collections and services

SUNSITE Digital Collections
from Berkeley Digital Library

University of Wisconsin Digital Collections UWDC
the Council of Wisconsin libraries and UW System's Office of Learning & Information Technology established the UWDC to provide quality digital resources from its academic libraries to UW faculty, staff and students, citizens of the state, and scholars at large

Voice of the Shuttle
Web site for humanities research; from the University of California, Santa Barbara, English Department

Yahoo Electronic Literature
links and indexes to online books and collections of texts

 

 

 

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DIRECTORIES & INDEXES

Argus Clearinghouse
The Internet's premier research library; a collection of topical guides

Best Information on the Net
A highly selective directory of Internet resources intended primarily for undergraduates, reflects the ethical and social service orientation of St. Ambrose University

Dmoz Open Directory Project
4,830,584 sites in 590,000 categories

Galaxy
One of the largest directories, with over 3.2 million listings and 680,000
categories

Internet Public Library
from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

The Invisible Web Directory
Includes some of the best resources the Invisible Web has to offer from reliable information providers that are not visible to general purpose search engines

WWW Virtual Library
The oldest catalog on the Web; compiled by volunteers; widely recognized
as a high quality guide