LibraryEvaluating Websites
We've just seen an example of a website that claimed to be a "valuable resource for students" on Martin Luther King, but upon investigation turned out not to be. Often the value of a site will not be quite so obvious as it was in this case. Let's start to look at the criteria you can use to evaluate websites you find while you're searching.
Authority
John Hodgman:
(fake) expert
Authority is an important concern at all levels of academic work. When a source of information is authoritative, it has more credibility in the research process. In college you are sometimes asked to read peer-reviewed scholarly literature; the reason for this is that the process of peer review, in which experts in a field evaluate a paper before it is published, confers authority on the research.
As we have seen, though, the Web is a radically democratic method of publishing, meaning that you need to determine the authority of the material yourself.
When you encounter material on the Web, you should always be able to determine:
- who is responsible for a website or page
- the credentials of the author.
Who is responsible
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for martinlutherking.org, and in fact, nowhere on the site does any particular person or organization take responsibility for the site's content. Any website worth your time should make clear who is standing behind it. In some cases this might be an individual; in others, it might be an organization. Look for a link on the home page leading to an "about us" page.
But the mere presence of an "about" page is not in itself enough. The site should provide information about the person or organization in enough detail that you would be able to verify the information elsewhere. If the author of the site claims to be an accomplished scientist or acclaimed author, you should be able to find plenty of material on him or her by searching Google. If the author claims to be a university professor, you should be able to find information about information about him or her on the university's website.
We'll go over some advanced ways of checking this information in a later section.
Credentials
Anyone with access to a computer connected to the Internet can publish on the Web. It's clear enough when you're looking at MySpace that it's easy to get yourself onto the Web--MySpace and similar social networking sites look informal and fun. But with a little more knowledge, and not much more money, one can create more professional looking sites.
For your research projects, you are going to be looking for materials with a certain amount of authority. So, when you find a site with information relevant to your topic, you always need to determine the credentials of the author.
- Is she an expert on the topic? She should provide links that would easily allow you to confirm her standing; if not, try searching the Web to confirm her credentials.
- Has she published other materials, or only on the website you are looking at? If the latter, be suspicious.
- If the information is issued under the name of an organization, can you find external references to that organization that make it seem reputable? Search the Web and see what you find.
- If the source is a media organization, is it a large, well-regarded one? National publications such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have more authority than local publications.
Determining the authority of an information source is not a perfect science.
A lot of interesting material can be made by people who would not traditionally be regarded as experts. And if you are looking for information that is far outside the mainstream, you are not going to find authoritative sources. But even if you are going to be arguing against the mainstream view of an issue, it is important to identify what that view is; so you need to be able to find authoritative sources on the topic.
