1. Hudson Valley Community College Marvin Library Web Site Evaluation
English 115
Web Site Evaluation

2. Before using a website, consider…
Accuracy of the Website: Does the information seem accurate? Are the facts verifiable?
Authority of the Website: Who is the author? What expertise does he or she have on this topic? Who sponsors the site? Check for About Us or Copyright to see if it is a university, business, organization, or an individual. Remember that anyone can put anything on the Web.
Objectivity of the Website: What is the stated purpose of the site? What position or opinion is presented and does it seem biased? What kind of sites does this one link to?
Currency of the Website: On what date was the page created? Do you need more current information? Do links on the site still connect to their destination?
Appropriateness for Research: Should you use this information in a college research paper?

3. Evaluating Your Online Sources:
Authority
Can you tell who the author is? Consider the author’s credentials. Do you know for sure that they’re a doctor or an expert on their topic?
Currency
Start with the most recent information. Some web sites don’t get updated on a regular basis.
Relevancy
Is this really what you were looking for?
Always double-check your facts when things seem suspicious.
Authority: Can you tell who the author is? Consider the author’s credentials. Do you know for sure that they’re a doctor or an expert on their topic? Currency: Start with the most recent information. Some web sites don’t get updated on a regular basis. Relevancy: Is this really what you were looking for? Always double-check your facts when things seem suspicious. Look at this web site from Santa Anita University. Can you tell from the address if it’s legitimate? Look at the text. Some of the words are misspelled. It says it has documentation—let’s look at that documentation. See the problem. Let’s scroll down and you’ll see this was a critical thinking assignment to help point out the dangers of accepting everything you read on the Internet.

4. You can’t always tell from the web address if a site is legitimate
You can’t always tell from the web address if a site is legitimate. Can you verify the author’s credentials? Look on other sites for this. Notice misspelled words. Let’s look at the documentation. Remember that any one can put anything on the web. Read critically and question when it doesn’t make sense. Be selective when searching for web sources.

5. Note that this was a critical thinking assignment to help point out the dangers of accepting everything you read on the Web. Now let’s look at some examples of good web sites.

6. American FactFinder: http://factfinder2. census
American FactFinder provides access to data about the United States, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. The data in American FactFinder come from several censuses and surveys.

7. American Memory:
Doing research on American history? Check out the Library of Congress from primary source treasures from our nation’s past.
The United States Library of Congress provides free and open access through the Web to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience on the American Memory web site.

8. Avalon Project:
Need access to primary documents from the past? Try the Avalon Project.
Yale Law School’s Avalon Project provides access to historical documents in the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government.

9. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
Health information from the web is widely available but not always accurate. Use reliable medical sources.
CDC.gov provides users with credible, reliable health information on: diseases and conditions, emergencies and disasters, environmental health, healthy living, injury, violence, safety, life stages, travelers' health, etc.

10. Gallup Poll:
Gallup has studied human nature and behavior for more than 75 years. Gallup employs many of the world's leading scientists in management, economics, psychology, and sociology. A Gallup poll tries to identify and monitor behavioral economic and political indicators worldwide.

11. PolitiFact
How do we know what to believe? Sites like PolitiFact (run by an independent newspaper Tampa Bay Times) try to provide fact checking for political issues. Always look at who is doing the research, who is paying for it (advertising), and consider why they are doing it before believing anything.

12. United Nations:
If you are dealing with a global issue, find the organizations that deal with the entire world like the United Nations. The UN web site serves as a center for attacking global challenges..

13. United States Census:
Consider who gathers the information and why. The United States Census Bureau gathers all kinds of population information every ten years. This information can be used for those doing research in genealogy as well as other reasons.

14. USA.gov:
USA.gov makes it easy for the public to get U.S. government information and services on the web.
If you are exploring laws and government of a country, it is important to look at the information they publish about themselves. Use the search box of the A-Z List of Agencies or topics to get started.

15. Citing Websites can be difficult:
The idea behind citing web sites for both APA and MLA is to give the reader a way to access the same source that the author found. This can be difficult as the web changes constantly.
For APA, if no doi (digital object identifier), remember to include the URL (web address) after Retrieved from. The retrieved from date only needs to be included if that information changes day to day.
For MLA 8, if no doi, add the URL (without the Publisher/sponsor and date are often found at the bottom/top of a web page. If there is no web page date, you can add date accessed.

16. APA Website Citations

17. MLA 8 Website Citations

18. Citation Maker: Citation Machine
Citation Machine does not charge to create citations for MLA, APA or Chicago. You will need to fill in the boxes to create the citation. Check all results against an accurate example. Be prepared to make corrections.

19. Citation Maker: EasyBib.com
Citation makers are only as good as the information you put into them. EasyBib makes web sites easy to produce in MLA format. They charge for APA. For web citations click on MLA 8 , copy the web address into the box and hit Cite It. Be willing to look at the web page and fill in the information it missed and correct when needed.

20. When selecting web sites:
Don’t pick sites designed only to sell something. Avoid sites with shopping carts.
Check About this Site or About Us usually at the top/bottom.
If something seems suspicious, Google information about this authority on another site.
Make sure information is up-to-date for current topics. Copyright dates may be at the bottom of the page.
Don’t list Wikipedia as a source. Check their References, and track down and cite from that source.
Find the best possible sources for your topic. Don’t rely on your search engine’s first three results to be the best you can find.