ACCESSING & ASSESSING WEB INFORMATION  |  SEARCH TECHNIQUES  |  DECIPHERING DOMAIN NAMES  |

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INFORMATION CHECKLIST - see Teacher's Marking sheet below

• Balance is key - You should use a mixture of print, visual and digital.  Unless otherwise specified by your teacher, you are expected to have books, magazines/newspapers, CDs and online sources.  Remember that  much information such as magazines & newspapers is accessed through the Internet, and a source such as Maclean's Magazine is the same in print, on CD or online

• propriate - Consider the nature of the topic.  Are you studying history? Then, perhaps, books are the best. Is the person you are researching long since dead?  A book should give a fair opinion. Are you studying this week's developments in genetic engineering? You'll need online databases of newspapers and magazines.

• Current - use up to date information when needed.  Check your bibliography to ensure that, when appropriate, there are materials from this year.
  • Always use current statistics from reputable statistical sources
  • There is a difference between the date the material was published and the date you accessed it.  Find the date of publication; where it is unavailable, give the date you accessed information instead

• Reputable - who is the author? for whom does he/she work? who funded the research?  What ads are on the page? The company that pays for an ad probably wants certain content in the site.  Learn to decipher domain names - see below.  Click View, Source to see if an author's name is buried in the code; however, this may be only the page author, not the content author.
• Authority - the author has knowledge, credentials.  Exercise caution here - anyone can assume any identify on the Internet.
• Complete - is all the data/information presented or only 1 perspective?
• Links - to whom does the site link?  Reputable sites tends to link to other reputable sites.  The Ministry of Tourism for Ontario might link to http://www.langdonhall.com/ but not likely to http://www.joessleazymotel.com/

• Unbiased - are all perspectives presently fairly? For whom was the information designed?
  • Most companies have a bias, a perspective, something to promote. 
  • Even organization such as Greenpeace have a "perspective"

    
     

• Evaluation of Internet material 
• A checklist on Internet evaluation 
• Adapted from 
• Quality Information checklist 
• Kathy Schrock’s guide to quality evaluation sites 
• From Now On - online journal on the Internet & the classroom

• for definitions and brief overviews of topic &/or people involved.  Look for good keywords contained in these articles to use in CD and Internet searches.  Dictionaries & Encyclopedias are available in print or non-print CD or Internet form [ie. Britannica, World Book or Encarta, Columbia, My Virtual Encyclopedia], in a variety of languages, for a variety of subjects [ie. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology Dewey #503, Magill's Cyclopedia of Characters Dewey #803].  Be sure to check copyright date if material must be current.
• access in the reference section in the library, or on CD-ROMs, or online

• for in depth, generally fair, coverage of subject. Watch out for copyright date if material must be current.
• Every source of information usually has a bias; look carefully at the credentials of the author and publisher
• some books can now be accessed as e-texts, ie. online copies of complete books.  Be careful downloading because of their large size
• access through the online catalogue of library materials under author's last name, title or, more often, subjects; access online through e-text sites 

• use print, CD and online sources of primary documents:
• historical documents - treaties, constitutions, declarations, charters...
• actual works of literature: the poem, play, short story, novel...
• case studies
• experiments & research
• laws, statues, regulations

• for tables, charts, stats
• Check for books in the 310s; use E-Stat CD-ROM, Internet
• check for date; the world changes very quickly
• these tend to be very accurate if published by reputable sources [ie. governments, international agencies such as the UN, CIA Country data, statistics.com, Information Please]
• access in reference or atlas/statistics section; find in other sources such as books, mags, CDs the Internet
• watch for bias in sources that are using statistics but aren't statistical sites. That is, Statistics Canada exists to provide unbiased statistical information; other authors may take unbiased statistics and present them in a biased way. 

• both mags & newspapers are designed to provide brief, current information about 1 aspect of a larger topic.  They are best once you have understood the backgorund and basics of a topic.
• watch for bias, currency, accuracy, selection of information
• access in print, on CD or on the Internet either from direct sources [ie. the Maclean's home page or the Toronto Star home page, lists at http://www.canada.com/ ] or through a subscription service [ie. Electric Library]. Some of our libraries have remote/from home access to SIRS and Electric Library.  All articles from SIRS, Electric Library and Ehost can be printed, saved, or e-mailed.
• search by subject or keywords using Boolean operators [lesson from SIRS] and, or, not...Some sites also use near to mean within the same paragraph or within 25 words] ie. Lemieux and hockey; Gretzky or Lemieux; mustang not horse.  Some searches uses the word and, some use the + sign; all recognize and.
• use quotation marks around phrases or proper names. ie. "mountain bikes", "Jean Chretien", "The Beatles"
• truncation is using an * to reduce a word to its root, truck. ie. adopt* will tell the site to look for adopt, adopted, adoption...
• some engines also use a question mar ? as a wildcard: ne?t returns neat, next, nest...
• use combinations of the above: "Wayne Gretzky" and nhl and scor*

• Most CDs fall into one of the categories above; however, some CDs are unique in their purpose
• There are CDs, for example, on Organized Crime, on Parenting, etc.
• access by checking the online catalogue of library resources or by asking library staff

• see search techniques above 
• As time goes on, much of the world's information is being transferred onto the Net
• pay particular attention to who or which agency is responsible for the content, to the date, to the accuracy, fairness and completeness of all information.
• look at any site's links:  good sites tend to link to other good sites.
• learn to decipher domain names as a key to reliability:   ie. http://www.un.org/ is a good source of information; www.somebodyinhisbasement.com/hateonforhonda/ is not necessarily.
• .edu or in England ac.uk - educational sites: http://www.ukans.edu/ is an educational site and is reputable; http://www.bham.wednet.edu/bio/biomaker.htm is educational but at the high school level.  Be sure not to quote from other students at your own level; watch for k12 embedded in the URL
• .org - organizations http://www.un.org/ is the United Nations site; most .org domain names are reputable institutions.  BUT, remember that even organizations can have a bias: http://www.greenpeace.org/ has a point of view.  Now, anyone can purchase a .org domain name; so verify!
• .net - an Internet provider
• .mil - a military establishment.  We rarely see these domain names online but they are reputable
• .gov - government site; very reputable
• .com - anyone can buy a .com site; this does not mean they are unreliable, but you must use more caution at these sites.  Don't base an entire paper on .com sites.
• access through search engines [such as Google, webcrawler, infoseek, askjeeves, Toile du Quebec, etc.] or metacrawlers which search many engines at once (metacrawler, dogpile) or directories [such as Yahoo or Yahoo Canada, About.com.  Exercise on search engines.