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Information Skills

Finding Information on the Internet

Evaluating Web Sites

Almost anyone can publish what they wish on the Internet. This means there is often a lot of material that is not suitable for academic use. Therefore, it is important to learn how to evaluate the results of your internet searches.   

It is helpful to build up a structured list of criteria that you can use to evaluate the quality of your results. These criteria could be written as a list of questions that you could ask your self about the content of the website you have found. Here are some example questions you could use as a starting point:

• When was the web site last updated?  This is particularly important if you need current information.
• Does the website contain spelling mistakes, poor use of grammar or dead links?  This could imply that the quality of the content is also poor.
• Does the website have a site map, search facility or A-Z list to help you find your way around?
• Who is the website's intended audience? Is this intended audience suitable for your needs?
• Who (or which organisation) is the author of the website? Are they reputable?
• Is the information on the website objective or is it trying to sell a product, or put across a personal opinion?

Some other university libraries have produced some useful criteria to help their students evaluate the quality of the results that their students have found on the internet.  Two good examples are:

• Reading University Library's Evaluating Internet Resources page
• Berkeley University Libraries' Guide on Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask

The Judge section in each of the tutorials in the Resource Discovery Networks' Virtual Training Suite will also be useful.

Internet Detective: an online tutorial

Internet Detective is a Web-based tutorial on evaluating the quality of the information you find on the Internet. It is free, you can do it in your own time at your own pace and it's interactive - with quizzes and exercises to lighten the learning process. Read more about the Internet Detective tutorial ...

If connecting to the Internet for long periods of time is not feasible, you can even download an offline version of the tutorial. However, if you haven't got time to work through the whole tutorial the Internet Detective handout, which is available in Word, Rich Text Format (RTF) and PDF may also be useful.