• Can you tell who is the creator? Does he/she have any special qualifications on this subject?
• Is there an institution/organization sponsoring the site? (You may have to go back a few levels or check some of the links to find out). What clues indicate if the organization has a particular bias or agenda?
  
• What is the "top domain" in the URL of the site? (e.g. .org, .com, .edu, .gov, .net, etc.)
• Is contact information provided for the creator(s) or webmaster?
  
• To see who owns the domain name, search the domain name in Network Solutions "whois" records at http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/whois/index.jhtml
• To see what others think of the site (what pages link to this site), try a link search on google.com Type link:thedomainofthesite in the search box (that is, type the word link, followed by a colon, then no space, then the domain of the site you want to evaluate, for example link:greeningearthsociety.org).

Purpose

• What do you think the purpose of the site is?  Consider what benefits the author or sponsor derives from this site.

Audience

• At what audience is this website directed?

Accuracy/Objectivity

• Does the information seem accurate and objectively presented?
  
  OR

• Does the site appear to have a bias or express undocumented opinions? Is the information one-sided or subjective or does it appear questionable?  

• Are there spelling or typographical errors, or flaws or strengths in the format and appearance that give you clues as to the reliability of this site?

• Are there references or links that lead to useful information or that verify statements on the page?

Content

• Is the content informative and useful?

• Does the website cover the topic adequately?

Currency

• Can you tell when the site was last updated or if the information seems up-to-date? Check "Page Info" on Netscape or type javascript:alert(document.lastModified) into the URL address box

• Do the links work? Some topics do not require frequent updates, but you may want to know whether anyone is maintaining the site.

Summary

• What is your overall assessment of the site? Useful? Good reliable source? Joke? Junk?  Useful only to show a particular viewpoint?  Would this be a good source of information for a research paper?

• Evaluating Information - Applying the CRAAP test
  http://www.csuchico.edu/lins/handouts/evalsites.html
• Evaluating Internet Resources (University of Albany Libraries)
  http://library.albany.edu/internet/evaluate.html
• Evaluating Information Found on the Internet
  http://milton.mse.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating/index.html
• Evaluating Web Pages: A Web Quest (Teachers page, grades 9-12)
  http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/evalwebteach.html
  (Joy Valenza, Springfield Township Highschool)
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources
  http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/eval.html
  (Susan Beck, New Mexico State University Library)
• Evaluating Web Resources
  http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/webeval.htm
  (Jan Alexander and Marsha Ann Tate, Widener University)
• Hoax? Scholarly Research? Personal Opinion? You Decide!
  http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/hoax/index.htm
  (UCLA College Library)
• Hoax Sites (dmoz Open Directory Project)
  http://dmoz.org/Reference/Education/Instructional_
  Technology/Evaluation/Web_Site_Evaluation/
• ICYouSee: T is for Thinking
  http://www.ithaca.edu/library/training/think.html
• Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators: Critical Evaluation Information
  http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html
• Quick: the Quality Information Checklist (audience: K-8, includes quiz)
  http://www.hfht.org/chiq/Quick/docs/index.html
• Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources
  http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/critical/index.htm
  (Esther Grassian, UCLA College Library)
• TILT: Texas Information Literacy Tutorial
  http://tilt.lib.utsystem.edu/
• What can the Web address (URL) tell you about a site's scholarly value
  http://www.lib.umich.edu/ugl/guides/evaluation/why-think.html
• Who Dunnit: What Kind of Web Page Is This??
  http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/whodunnit/index.htm

Diane Prorak
University of Idaho Library