Accuracy and Reliability
Is the website accurate and reliable?
Information on the Internet changes almost as rapidly as it is created. To change information in an encyclopedia, a book, or print is an arduous process. Materials must be rewritten, re-researched, re proofed and retested, and then republished and resold. Material on the Internet can be quickly changed by the author and updated almost instantly. For this reason, information can become quickly outdated. Links are broken and no longer work. How can you verify the accuracy of a website? Ask yourself the following questions:
- Is it fair or biased?
- Does the author have the credentials to be speaking authoritatively on a subject or is it simply his/her opinion?
- Does the information exist on a website that has a political or philosophical agenda?
- Are they linked to other less than reputable sites?
- Look for indicators of quality information.
- Are there related links or additional sites listed on the website that verify the information?
- Are the links current, reliable, and do they work?
- Is the content footnoted or does it give credit to it’s sources?
- Are images altered in any way?
- Where does the website link out to?
- Does it link to sites that have authority?
- Are they biased or fair? Opinion or fact?
USING INFO:WEBSITE IN GOOGLE
[qt:http://staffdev.henrico.k12.va.us/~roethkda/infoliteracy/info_googleweb.mov http://staffdev.henrico.k12.va.us/~roethkda/infoliteracy/info_googleweb.mov 640 480]
- What is the history of the website?
- Use Wayback machine to verify history of website or to find websites that you can no longer locate. http://www.archive.org/index.php
USING THE WAYBACK MACHINE
[qt:http://staffdev.henrico.k12.va.us/~roethkda/infoliteracy/wayback_machine.mov http://staffdev.henrico.k12.va.us/~roethkda/infoliteracy/wayback_machine.mov 640 480]
