Campus Library Discovery Core 107: Environmental Issues Research

The World Wide Web can be a great place to accomplish research on many topics. But putting documents or pages on the web is easy, cheap or free, unregulated, and unmonitored (at least in the USA).

Therein lies the rationale for evaluating carefully whatever you find on the Web. The burden is on you - the reader - to establish the validity, authorship, timeliness, and integrity of what you find. Documents can easily be copied and falsified or copied with omissions and errors -- intentional or accidental. In the general World Wide Web there are no editors (unlike most print publications) to proofread and "send it back" or "reject it" until it meets the standards of a publishing house's reputation. Most pages found in general search engines for the web are self-published or published by businesses small and large with motives to get you to buy something or believe a point of view.

Accuracy - If your page lists the author and institution that published the page and provides a way of contacting him/her and . . .
Verifiability - If the information on your page can be found in other sources...
Authority - If your page lists the author credentials and its domain is preferred (.edu, .gov, .org, or .net), and . . .
Objectivity - If your page provides accurate information with limited advertising and it is objective in presenting the information, and . . .
Currency - If your page is current and updated regularly (as stated on the page) and the links (if any) are also up-to-date, and . . .
Coverage - If you can view the information properly--not limited to fees, browser technology, or software requirement, then . . . .

More info on evaluating websites

Return to the class research guide

Getting Help from a Librarian

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me

Sarah Leadley
American Studies Librarian
sleadley@uwb.edu
425-352-5387

If I'm not available, we have many ways you can get help.