Evaluating Information
Internet vs. Databases
Benton Library Media Center
Monday, September 7, 2009

EVALUATING INFORMATION
“Wrong” “Right”
Information Information
Monday, September 7, 2009

EVALUATING THE INTERNET
Monday, September 7, 2009

Is the website backed by experts?
Can you determine the
authors of the website?
Is the website commerical
or non-commercial?
Image: “dot com” by Thomas Hawk via Flickr under a CC-license.
Monday, September 7, 2009

Is the information verifiable elsewhere?
Is the information
backed by sources?
Is the information
relevant to your topic?
Images: “IT everywhere #31” by Paul the Wine Guy via Flickr under a CC-license.
“Smack in the middle” by ogimogi via Flickr under a CC-license.
Monday, September 7, 2009

Is the information up-to-date?
Does the website
present new information?
Can you tell when the
information was published?
Images: “#1 New MacBook” by Mikael Miettinen via Flickr under a CC-license.
“2009-07-09 What Day Is It?” by RG of CS-taking a bit of a break via Flickr under a CC-license.
Monday, September 7, 2009

Is the information comprehensive?
Is there a clear bias
for a single viewpoint?
Is the information presented
objectively (when needed)?
Images: “Chain” by waffler via Flickr under a CC-license.
“Load or unload” by Pulpolux !!! via Flickr under a CC-license.
Monday, September 7, 2009

Are Google and Wikipedia okay?
Images: “New Google Favicon High Resolution” by Tiger Pixel via Flickr under a CC-license.
“Size of English Wikipedia” by Nikola Smolenski via Wikipedia under a GNU-license.
Monday, September 7, 2009

WHAT IS A DATABASE?
search engine for printed publications
scholarly journals popular magazines
newspapers other content
Monday, September 7, 2009

DATABASES vs THE INTERNET
academic content varied content
VS
updated daily updated irregularly
VS
peer reviewing little or no reviewing
of articles of websites
PEER REVIEW
VS
Images: “049”, “Fresh from the Still”, “question mark ?”, “What ?” , “Question
mark” via Flickr, under a CC-license.
Monday, September 7, 2009

bentonmediacenter.ning.com
Monday, September 7, 2009