Searching for and Evaluating Web Resources

• Locating Web Resources
• Evaluating Quality in Web Sites
• Reviewing Sites Exercise

Locating Web Resources

The World Wide Web offers access to a wide variety of text and media available on the Internet. Use the Web to locate government information; graphics, images, and slides; information about and by associations, organizations and agencies; fast-breaking news stories; and traffic and weather reports. Material may come from universities and research institutes, consumer groups, commercial companies, and individual lay persons.

While you may find abstracts and/or full-text for newspapers, magazine, and journal articles when doing broad, generic searches on the Web, this is not the most efficient or precise way to locate this type of material. It is better to restrict your search to resources, such as MEDLINE, that specialize in locating these articles. Many search services have been developed to assist you in your Web searches, such as Yahoo!, Infoseek, Excite, Alta Vista, etc. You may search them either by browsing broad subject categories or by searching specific keywords.

Browsing Subject Categories

Browsing subject categories is useful if you need some general information on a topic. To try browsing subject categories, go to the Yahoo! site. You will see a list of various subject categories such as Education, Government, Science, and Society. Each of these categories will lead you to additional, more specific categories and ultimately to individual web sites.

For example, if you select the category Health, you will be shown a list of health-related topics. You could then select Medicine to see topics in that area. Next, you could select a topic of interest, such as Diseases and Conditions, from the Medicine topics and be shown a list of web pages dealing with that topic.

Keyword Searching

Keyword searching is a good approach when you need information on a particular topic or need answers to specific questions. When you select a search service, you should see a dialog box as well as the subject categories. You may type one or more words in the dialog box to search for web pages related to your topic.

More Information

For further information on web search tools, see:

• Search Engine Watch
  http://searchenginewatch.com
  
  
• Searching the Internet: Recommended Sites and Search Techniques
  http://library.albany.edu/internet/search.html
  
  
• Understanding and Working with WWW Search Tools
  http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/websearchtools/

Evaluating Quality in Web Sites

Whenever you discover other sites on your own or through links, be sure to check for authenticity, usefulness, and timeliness of the information. When you find an Internet resource, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Who developed and maintains the site?
2. Are they authorities on the subject?
3. What are their credentials?
4. How often is the information updated?
5. Is there a date for the latest revision listed on the home page?
6. How relevant is the information to your particular needs?
7. Does it only contain local information or can the information be generalized to your situation?

More Information

For further information on evaluating web sites, see:

• Evaluating Web Resources
  http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/webeval.htm
  
  
• Practical Steps in Evaluating Internet Resources
  http://www.library.jhu.edu/elp/useit/evaluate/practical.html
  
  
• Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources
  http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/critical/index.htm
  
  
• Who Dunnit: What Kind of Web Page Is This?
  http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/whodunnit/

Reviewing Sites Exercise

Below you will see four web sites. Choose and click on one of the sites.

What do you think about the quality of this site? Why?

• Brass Instrument Psychology
  
  
• Martin Luther King Jr. - A True Historical Examination
  
  
• History of the Psychology
  
  
• Info Line of Los Angeles
  
  
• NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill)
  
  
• Psych Web
  
  
• Schizophrenia.com
  
  
• WebMD

Last updated: February 26, 2004