SP – Evaluating sources – Tips from Karyn Silverman, HS Librarian

Seniors: Some helpful resources for you! [from Karyn Silverman, HS Librarian]

• Content, Authority, Relevance, Purpose, and Design (CARPeD)

• Content: Is the site current? Comprehensive? How is this information better or different than the info you have seen elsewhere? (Make sure there is more available than an encyclopedia would have.) Are there typos or other clear errors in the content?
• Authority and credibility: who is responsible for the site (author or agency), and what are the qualifications of that author or agency?
• Relevance: Is the information pertinent to your research? (Even great information is useless if it is irrelevant for your purposes)
• Bias or purpose: Can you tell what is fact and what is opinion?
• Design: Is it well designed, easy to read and navigate? Are the links live or dead? Are citations or references provided?

• Some tips on evaluating blogs (which do not get evaluated exactly like websites) can be found here:
  • http://21cif.com/rkitp/assessment/v1n5/valenza1.5_blogeval.html
  • With blog evaluation, authorship, audience, and context are crucial and bias should be recognized but is expected.

• A few links with additional details about evaluating sites and including a checklist you may print and use:

• From UC Berkeley, a checklist that helps break down authorship and authority: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
• Cornell’s very impressive breakdown for evaluation: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/webeval.html
• PDF checklist, from Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/pdf/evalhigh.pdf