Currently, evaluating sources is a keen problem because information, knowledge, news, research spread all over the world and from any part of the world. Nowadays if you need to look for information about a specific topic, be it in the library or online, you will find out plenty of different materials about it and many times literature about it offers contrastive views of the point. So, how can we manage our research in this riddle of information? What are the criteria on which we can judge the reliability and trustworthiness of a piece of information?
First of all, I think that we have to make a basic distinction between the two most important kinds of sources of information: sources on paper (i.e. books, newspaper, reviews etc.) and online sources (i.e. websites, blogs, online encyclopaedias etc.). The task of evaluating “paper” sources is quite straightforward. I mean, you have to consider the author, whether it is well-known or not, the date of publication to understand if the information is updated, the publishing house. Then, you can leaf through the bibliography at the end of the book in order to find references of other authors who deal with the same topic and check if those authors mention the one you’re interested in. You can have a look at the footnotes as well in order to see which sources the author uses in order to give evidence to his assumptions. In the end, you can look for reviews about the book on Internet or on encyclopaedias in order to know what other authors think about the book you’re interested in.
As far as evaluating online sources is concerned, the task is undoubtedly more complex. I must admit that I have never relied completely on information found out on the Internet. I mean, I read through it and judge it but, then, I tend to search for corroboration in books or encyclopaedias. However, the Web nowadays is a powerful source of information, maybe the most updated one, and so people should know at least some basic criteria to critically judge the information they are managing. Talking about this, I’d suggest you a couple on interesting web sites on the topic: Evaluating Internet Sources and Evaluation Criteria. Since anyone can put up whatever he/she wants on Internet, a list of simple criteria is very useful in order not to accept whatever you find.
Now, I’ll try to give you some handy tips on the topic but mind that these are only the starting point because the issue is wider and wider.
1. READ THROUGH A LOT OF WEBSITES. Visiting only a website is not enough to have a thorough approach on the topic. Reading through a lot of different websites on the topic will help you to avoid subjectivity, partiality and narrow-minded view on the topic.
2. CHECK THE URL. The URL of a website as well can give you some primary information about the website (i.e. the domain .edu, .com, .org will show you whether the website comes from an authoritative organization or not.)
3. CHECK AUTHORITY. The first thing to do when you’re visiting a website is to find the name of the author, his credential, the name of the sponsoring organization and to verify if the author can be easily reached by the users. In other words, is there somebody who is responsible for the information given in the website?
4. CHECK CURRENCY. Look at the date and check out when the website was updated for the last time. The more information in the website is updated, the more the website can be considered reliable. One more thing, also the number of rating (high or low) is very important.
5. CHECK ACCURACY. A good website is the one that gives information and it is able to give information about its sources of information as well. I mean, a website has to provide with references to other websites, a thorough bibliography and links to other information about the topic.
6. THINK ABOUT THE GOAL OF THE WEBSITE. Obviously, any website has a specific goal to achieve. The aim of a website is really important because it influences the choice of information to give and the way to convey it.
Hope I'll help you to think a bit about the problem of evaluating web sources!
Let me have all your comments…
Elena
First of all, I think that we have to make a basic distinction between the two most important kinds of sources of information: sources on paper (i.e. books, newspaper, reviews etc.) and online sources (i.e. websites, blogs, online encyclopaedias etc.). The task of evaluating “paper” sources is quite straightforward. I mean, you have to consider the author, whether it is well-known or not, the date of publication to understand if the information is updated, the publishing house. Then, you can leaf through the bibliography at the end of the book in order to find references of other authors who deal with the same topic and check if those authors mention the one you’re interested in. You can have a look at the footnotes as well in order to see which sources the author uses in order to give evidence to his assumptions. In the end, you can look for reviews about the book on Internet or on encyclopaedias in order to know what other authors think about the book you’re interested in.
As far as evaluating online sources is concerned, the task is undoubtedly more complex. I must admit that I have never relied completely on information found out on the Internet. I mean, I read through it and judge it but, then, I tend to search for corroboration in books or encyclopaedias. However, the Web nowadays is a powerful source of information, maybe the most updated one, and so people should know at least some basic criteria to critically judge the information they are managing. Talking about this, I’d suggest you a couple on interesting web sites on the topic: Evaluating Internet Sources and Evaluation Criteria. Since anyone can put up whatever he/she wants on Internet, a list of simple criteria is very useful in order not to accept whatever you find.
Now, I’ll try to give you some handy tips on the topic but mind that these are only the starting point because the issue is wider and wider.
1. READ THROUGH A LOT OF WEBSITES. Visiting only a website is not enough to have a thorough approach on the topic. Reading through a lot of different websites on the topic will help you to avoid subjectivity, partiality and narrow-minded view on the topic.
2. CHECK THE URL. The URL of a website as well can give you some primary information about the website (i.e. the domain .edu, .com, .org will show you whether the website comes from an authoritative organization or not.)
3. CHECK AUTHORITY. The first thing to do when you’re visiting a website is to find the name of the author, his credential, the name of the sponsoring organization and to verify if the author can be easily reached by the users. In other words, is there somebody who is responsible for the information given in the website?
4. CHECK CURRENCY. Look at the date and check out when the website was updated for the last time. The more information in the website is updated, the more the website can be considered reliable. One more thing, also the number of rating (high or low) is very important.
5. CHECK ACCURACY. A good website is the one that gives information and it is able to give information about its sources of information as well. I mean, a website has to provide with references to other websites, a thorough bibliography and links to other information about the topic.
6. THINK ABOUT THE GOAL OF THE WEBSITE. Obviously, any website has a specific goal to achieve. The aim of a website is really important because it influences the choice of information to give and the way to convey it.
Hope I'll help you to think a bit about the problem of evaluating web sources!
Let me have all your comments…
Elena
4 commenti:
Hi Elena!
You’re right. Nowadays there’s such a great amount of information on the Internet that it is becoming more and more difficult to retrieve good und trustworthy information without having valid criteria for properly evaluating it!
Reading through your post, I think you highlighted a very interesting point, i.e. the difference between evaluating books and online material: I agree with you that the assessment of the paper sources is more straightforward since footnotes and the bibliography at the end of the book can help you easily identify the authorship and the sources the author made use of. On the other hand, on the Internet it is more difficult to evaluate the bulk of information we usually find and everything appears to be more doubtful and uncertain!
Overall, I think we touched almost the same criteria for evaluating online sources, i.e. the importance of checking the authorship, the accuracy and currency. Understanding the goal of a website and verifying the urls are important criteria as well!
Bye,
Silvia
Hi Elena,
I agree with you and Silvia, nowadys it's so difficult judging web sources of information. In truth it's simplier to evaluate the sources of a book: you can check in the bibliography at the end of the book when the author published it, if he/she has written other books and so on...
The tips you suggested to check web sources are very useful and I think the most important, what the most of us has written: read through a lot of web sites, check the url, check authority, currency, accuracy, think about the goal of the web site.
I think this is a no-end work, but you can manage to do it well after a huge number of researches on the Internet and after a lot of experiences!!!
See you soon,
bye bye,
Letizia
Hi Elena!
I think that Letizia wrote something meaningful in her comment: using all the tips might become a never ending work!anyway we shludl try to use them all, at least we will quite preapared when we will have to work on our final thesis!
Your observations about the difference between evaluating books and online material are very interesting and there is no doub that evaluating Internet sources of information is far more complex and time demanding. Anyway if we start practice now, everytime we have to look for information, the task will become easier!
See you on Monday!
Hi Elena!
I agree with you when you say that many posts could be written on this topic. I feel free to say that you highlighted one important point -as Silvia wrote- which is the difference between books and e-sources. We use internet but we do not completely trust it, do we? I think that depends on the fact that we are almost new to these e-tools and sources and we are a bit afraid of their potentials. In front of the screen, we don't fell experts at all, thus not comfortable. That's why I think that we should use internet more often, in order to become more familiar with it and understand how to recognaize documents and websites aims.
Good job Elena!
Bye, bye!
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