For Malaysian Goverment Agencies can refer to MAMPU Guideline
http://www.mampu.gov.my/pdf/Pek-012006-Garis-panduan-lamanweb-v2.4-b.pdf
http://www.mampu.gov.my/pdf/spict/kk2.pdf
http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/webcrit.html
http://www.llrx.com/features/webeval.htm
http://www.studygs.net/evaluate.htm
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
http://www.studygs.net/evaluate.htm
More About Evaluating Web Sources
Evaluating Information Found on the Internet http://www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating
An excellent series of pages on this subject (from the Milton Library at Johns Hopkins University).
For annotated descriptions of many other good guides to evaluating web pages, search the subject "Evaluation of Internet Resources" in the Librarians' Internet Index <http://lii.org>.
Elements of Good Design
Fonts and Typography
How to Use Color
Graphics and Images
Web Layout Basics
Tackling Web Navigation
Accessibility and Usability
Web Design Software
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Five criteria for evaluating Web pages
Evaluation of Web documents
1. Accuracy of Web Documents
Who wrote the page and can you contact him or her?
What is the purpose of the document and why was it produced?
Is this person qualified to write this document?
How to interpret the basics
1. Accuracy
Make sure author provides e-mail or a contact address/phone number.
Know the distinction between author and Webmaster.
Evaluation of Web documents
2. Authority of Web Documents
Who published the document and is it separate from the "Webmaster?"
Check the domain of the document, what institution publishes this document?
Does the publisher list his or her qualifications?
How to interpret the basics
2. Authority
What credentials are listed for the authors)?
Where is the document published? Check URL domain.
Evaluation of Web documents
3. Objectivity of Web Documents
What goals/objectives does this page meet?
How detailed is the information?
What opinions (if any) are expressed by the author?
How to interpret the basics
3.Objectivity
Determine if page is a mask for advertising; if so information might be biased.
View any Web page as you would an infommercial on television. Ask yourself why was this written and for whom?
Evaluation of Web documents
4. Currency of Web Documents
When was it produced?
When was it updated'
How up-to-date are the links (if any)?
How to interpret the basics
4.Currency
How many dead links are on the page?
Are the links current or updated regularly?
Is the information on the page outdated?
Evaluation of Web documents
5. Coverage of the Web Documents
Are the links (if any) evaluated and do they complement the documents' theme?
Is it all images or a balance of text and images?
Is the information presented cited correctly?
How to interpret the basics
5. Coverage
If page requires special software to view the information, how much are you missing if you don't have the software?
Is it free or is there a fee, to obtain the information?
Is there an option for text only, or frames, or a suggested browser for better viewing?
Putting it all together
Accuracy. If your page lists the author and institution that published the page and provides a way of contacting him/her and . . .
Authority. If your page lists the author credentials and its domain is preferred (.edu, .gov, .org, or .net), and, . .
Objectivity. If your page provides accurate information with limited advertising and it is objective in presenting the information, and . . .
Currency. If your page is current and updated regularly (as stated on the page) and the links (if any) are also up-to-date, and . . .
Coverage. If you can view the information properly--not limited to fees, browser technology, or software requirement, then . . .
You may have a Web page that could be of value to your research!
FROM: Kapoun, Jim. "Teaching undergrads WEB evaluation: A guide for library instruction." C&RL News (July/August 1998): 522-523.
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<b>How To Evaluate A Web Site</b>
By LaJean Humphries, Published on December 2, 2002
LaJean Humphries is the library manager for Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt, a multi-service, regional law firm headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Her firm was one of several beta sites for a new software product from LexisNexis developed to validate a firm's client matter numbers and improve online cost recovery. She regularly provides Internet training for attorneys and staff.
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Introduction
I was very fortunate to be asked to be a contributing author to the book, Web of Deception: Misinformation on the Internet. This is a digest of the chapter I authored and the story of how it came about. It didn’t take long after first stepping on the Information Highway to realize that it was important to evaluate Internet sites. Attorneys may be very sophisticated but occasionally one still shows up in the librarian’s office, confused and dismayed, saying “But, I found it on the Internet” as if the Internet somehow bestowed accuracy on a piece of misinformation. The library mantra became, “You don't believe everything you read in the newspaper so don't believe everything you read or see on the Web.”
Once everyone in our firm had web access, the library started a regular program of Internet training classes. We covered practice areas as well as general reference and incorporated evaluation of web sites into practically every class. Eventually, we developed an entire class on evaluation. Soon there was an article in Searcher and next the chapter, How to Evaluate a Web Site, in Web of Deception: Misinformation on the Internet.
Even the most highly skilled and skeptical librarian can still learn new tricks. Web of Deception covers web hoaxes, counterfeit sites, and other spurious information, medical misinformation, corporate misinformation, privacy risks, charity scams, the dark side of e-commerce and email fraud, legal advice, searching quagmires, how search engines work, and remedies for intentional misinformation, as well as how to evaluate web sites. There are many factors to consider when evaluating web sites and there are many sites that provide checklists and tutorials to help you with evaluation. “How to Evaluate a Web Site” doesn’t cover technical issues; see useit.com and other sites for technical evaluations.
Sites to Help You Evaluate Web Sites
Many of the following sites are self-explanatory. All links were good in November 2002 but as we know, Web pages are fluid. They can be here today and gone tomorrow.
Bibliography on Evaluating Internet Resources
http://www.lib.vt.edu/research/libinst/evalbiblio.html
Nicole J. Auer, with Virginia Tech Libraries, maintains this excellent bibliography which includes Internet resources, sample evaluation forms, web site examples, print resources, useful listservs, and books.
Brandt, D. Scott. Evaluating Information on the Internet
http://www.lib.purdue.edu/techman/evaluate.html
Professor Brandt, Technology Training Librarian at Purdue University Libraries in West Lafayette, IN, discusses filtering and assessment in this relevant article.
Criteria for Evaluation of Internet Information Resources, http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~agsmith/evaln/index.htm
Alastair Smith, VUW Department of Library and Information Studies, New Zealand, “provides a ‘toolbox’ of criteria that enable Internet information sources to be evaluated for use in libraries, e.g. for inclusion in resource guides, and helping users evaluate information found.”
Evaluating a Site
http://www.2learn.ca/evaluating/evaluating.html
This Canadian site from 2Learn.ca was designed by and for teachers and includes many useful evaluation tools for students, particularly elementary through high school.
The Effects of Margins on Legislative Drafting
http://www.aallnet.org/products/crab/margin.htm
Attendees of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) 1997 pre-conference The Compleat Internet Researcher: Advanced Strategies and Techniques will recognize this page created by Elliot Chabot, an attorney in Washington, D.C., and for many years head of the automated legal support team of the House Information Resources staff of the U.S. House of Representatives. It demonstrates the ease with which text may appear differently on different computers. See the multi-million dollar difference in the meaning of the text that a few spaces can make.
Evaluating Internet Sites
http://cii.vcsu.nodak.edu/classroom/evaluating.htm
Marilyn O'Callaghan, Educational Technologist, Teaching with Technology Initiative in Fargo ND, provides a colorful webpage with five guidelines and sites to evaluate.
Evaluating Quality on the Net
http://www.hopetillman.com/findqual.html
Hope Tillman, Director of Libraries, Babson College, and Special Libraries Association president, 2001-2002, put this excellent article on the web in 1995 and it continually evolves and updates. Tillman covers relevance of existing criteria for other formats, looking at the continuum of information on the net, generic criteria for evaluation, the current state of evaluation tools on the net, and her own key indicators of quality.
Evaluating the Quality of Information on the Internet http://www.virtualchase.com/quality/index.html
Genie Tyburski, research librarian at Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, maintains The Virtual Chase, A Research Site for Legal Professionals http://www.virtualchase.com/index.shtml. Visit her section on Evaluating the Quality of Information on the Internet for checklists, interactive tutorial, guidelines, webliography, and more.
Evaluating Web Resources
http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/webeval.htm
Jan Alexander & Marsha Ann Tate, Wolfgram Memorial Library, Widener University, Chester, PA, provide materials to assist in teaching how to evaluate the informational content of Web resources and a bibliography of materials on applying critical thinking techniques to Web resources.
Evaluating Web Sites
http://www.lib.lfc.edu/internetsearch/evalweb.html
Lake Forest College Library provides a “good example” and a “questionable example” for each of the primary criteria for evaluating web sites.
Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools
http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/webeval.html
Michael Engle, Information Services, Cornell University Library, covers context, evaluation criteria, web reviews and rankings, and a webliography.
Evaluation of information sources
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~agsmith/evaln/evaln.htm
Another excellent site from Alastair Smith. See Criteria for Evaluation of Internet Information Resources above.
Free Pint
http://www.freepint.co.uk/
Free Pint is an email newsletter, “packed with tips on using the Internet for serious research, twice a month. Free Pint was founded and first published in November 1997 by William Hann.”
<b>Evaluating Web Sites</b>
http://www.lib.lfc.edu/internetsearch/evalweb.html
Lake Forest College Library provides a “good example” and a “questionable example” for each of the primary criteria for evaluating web sites.
<b>How to Evaluate a Web Page</b>
http://lib.colostate.edu/howto/evalweb2.html
Associate Professor and Reference Librarian at Morgan Library, Colorado State University,
Naomi Lederer has created both a summary and detailed version of “How to Evaluate a Web Page” and starts by asking what is the purpose of the web site you are viewing?
<b>ICYouSee: T is for Thinking</b>
http://www.ithaca.edu/library/Training/hott.html
John R. Henderson, Ithaca College Library, frequently updates this colorful site which includes a quiz and three exercises that instructors may use for teaching users to evaluate web sites.
Librarians’ Index to the Internet
http://lii.org
Surely every librarian is familiar with Listowner and Coordinator Karen G. Schneider’s “Librarians' Index to the Internet - Information You Can Trust!”
Schrock, Kathleen.
Evaluation of World Wide Web Sites: An Annotated Bibliography
http://ericir.syr.edu/ithome/digests/edoir9802.html
ERIC Digests are in the public domain and may be freely reproduced and disseminated.
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly or, Why It’s a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources
http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/eval.html
Susan E. Beck, Head, Reference & Research Services Department, New Mexico State University Library, maintains this site of examples, criteria, suggestions, and bibliography.
The Scout Report
http://scout.wisc.edu/
The Scout Report, available on the web and as an email subscription, provides interesting, high-quality reports about the Internet. This excellent resource from the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison also provides archives and various toolkits.
Usable Web
http://usableweb.com/
Keith Instone’s Usable Web is a collection of links about information architecture, human factors, user interface issues, and usable design specific to the World Wide Web.
useit.com: Jakob Nielsen's Website
http://useit.com/
Dr. Nielsen is undoubtedly one of the leading experts on web page usability. It is no longer enough to have a web site that looks pretty. It has to be highly usable or people will go elsewhere.
Who Wrote It? Who Published It?
“How to Evaluate a Web Site” and most of the web sites mentioned above list author and publisher as criteria to be considered when evaluating an Internet site. The book chapter goes into detail about verifying author credentials. A casual glance at the above sites shows that many of them are published or sponsored by educational institutions. That’s not an accident. Educational institutions and government agencies have a vested interest in presenting high-quality, accurate information.
Is the information current, accurate and complete?
Currency – sometimes it matters and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the information found on the Internet is accurate as of the date it was written but is not accurate now. Know when currency is important. If the issue is legal, you probably want to be sure the information is current. Sometimes information is current and accurate but not complete. Make sure you have complete information before making critical decisions.
Is the information unbiased?
There is nothing wrong with commercial, advertising, advocacy, educational, marketing, or personal Internet sites. However, all sites should make clear their purpose and bias. It should not be hard to determine the goal or purpose. If you can’t figure it out, be wary.
Quality of writing
The author of a web site may not be a Twain or a Hemingway but the writing on a web site should be grammatically correct, free from spelling errors, and at least of fairly high quality. High quality writing conveys the meaning of the text clearly and easily.1
Training Attorneys and Staff and Yourself
You can use many of the sites mentioned above when presenting Internet classes to your attorneys and staff. Have them compare the University of Santa Anita site with the CDC site (ICYou See: T is for Thinking mentioned above). Read aloud some of the names; this will guarantee some laughs. After reviewing some of the sites specifically designed for teaching, encourage users to evaluate other web sites.
What do you do when an attorney asks you about a new web-based service? T. R. Halvorson has done some excellent reviews on LLRX. See his section, “Here Comes the Judge: Law Librarians Evaluate Online Services” Program J-6 in the AALL 2002 Educational Program Handouts, pp. 153-166, and his articles, "Searcher Responsibility for Quality in the Web World," Searcher, vol. 6 no. 9, October 1998, pp. 12-20, and “Checklist of Questions: SCOUG-Inspired Review of an Online Legal Information Service,” for more details. See also Susan B. Hersch’s “Inundated with Offers for Legal Research Services on the Internet? Sorting out the Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” published May 1, 2001.
You can evaluate web sites and teach others to do so as well. Use the numerous resources available as well as your own common sense and good judgment. “ Question, compare, and verify. Do not believe everything you see!” 2
Footnotes
1 “How to Evaluate an Internet Site” Web of Deception: Misinformation on the Internet. Information Today, 2002.
2 Idib.
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Evaluating Website Content
The strength of criticism lies in the weakness of the thing criticized.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, English
I. The Problem
The Internet is a relatively new and untested information and communication medium. As such, we need to evaluate, expand, and adapt existing criteria for evaluating content, as well as develop new techniques.
The Internet is a ubiquitous medium: aside from questions of affordability, it is very pervasive in both authorship and audience. A web address is now an international information and persuasion medium
The Internet can very well be an unregulated and un-regulatable medium. As such, it is the visitor to a website who must have both tools and responsibility to discern quality websites.
II.. Examples of the problem
Have you been to New Hartford, Minnesota? (Probably only virtually...)
What do you think of the distinguished academic study "Feline Reactions to Bearded Men" by Catherine Maloney, Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut, Sarah J. Lichtblau, University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois Nadya Karpook,
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida Carolyn Chou, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Anthony Arena-DeRosa, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts?
III. Eight basic types of website purposes:
- Personal with biographic data, often called "vanity pages"
- Promotional to sell a product
- "Current" to provide extremely up-to-date information, as for newspapers' sites
- Informational to share information on a particular topic or hobby
- Advocacy/persuasive as propaganda to convert you to particular point of view
- Instructional to teach a unit or course of study;
- Registrational to register for courses, information, and/or products, accumulate a database of, and simplify communication with, registrants
- Entertainment!
Characteristics of 5 types (outside links):
Jan Alexander and Marsha Tate,
Wolfgram Memorial Library,
Widener University
IV. Contexts of website evaluation:
header * body * footer * navigation
V. Five evaluative guidelines from the School of Journalism & Library Science:
Authority Who is responsible for the page?
What are their qualifications and associations, and can you verify them?
Check the footer
for name of the web page author, his/her credentials and title, organizational affiliation. Is the information verifiable?
Currency Are dates clear when the website was first created and edited?
Check the footer
for when the website was created, and when last edited.Check the content
for news items, indications that the site is actively maintained, acknowledgements/responses to visitors
CoverageWhat is the focus of the site? Are there clear headings to illustrate an outline of the content? Is the navigation within the website clear?
Check the header
for a clear title and web site descriptionCheck the content
for headings and keywordsCheck the navigation
to reflect content outline within the web site
Objectivity Are biases clearly stated? Are affiliations clear?
Check the content
for statement of purpose,
to determine the type of web site and potential audience
for outside links for information external to the website
for graphics and cues for affiliationsCheck the header/footer and URL/domain (.gov .com .edu)
to determine organizational source of website and how this reflects on content type
Accuracy Are sources of information and factual data listed, and available for cross-checking
Check the content
for accuracy of spelling, grammar, facts(!), and consistency within websiteCheck content for a bibliographic
variety of websites (external links), of electronic media (electronic databases of references, established (print & on-line) journals, of electronic indexes (ERIC), and of books for comparative/evaluative purposes
VI. Bibliography (Author, web site, date last visited) related to evaluation:
(Widener University) Jan Alexander & Marsha Tate
Original Web Evaluation Materials (5 January, 2006)
Includes a link to a Powerpoint presentation for teaching materials
(Western Illinois University) Bruce Leland
Evaluating Web Sites: A Guide for Writers (5 January, 2006)
(Babson College) Hope Tillman
Evaluating Quality on the Net (5 January, 2006)
(Saint Louis University) Craig Branham
Evaluating Web pages for relevance (5 January, 2006)
Well developed website with sections on Anatomy of a page, Page types, Web search strategies, and Glossary.
More About Evaluating Web Sources
Evaluating Information Found on the Internet http://www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating
An excellent series of pages on this subject (from the Milton Library at Johns Hopkins University).
For annotated descriptions of many other good guides to evaluating web pages, search the subject "Evaluation of Internet Resources" in the Librarians' Internet Index <http://lii.org>.
http://www.studygs.net/evaluate.htm
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
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